Encrypted
by Le Fez-Wearing Husky
Summary: Amano Yukiteru used to live an ordinary life – well, that was if you could call skulking in one corner, simply observing but never speaking, ordinary. But then… they came. Messages encrypted in alien code, unsettling visions of the future… And only Yukiteru could see them. But then a mysterious white-haired boy appears, offering answers… along with the key to another reality. (AU)
1. Chapter 1: Watch And Learn

**Welcome, one and all, and thanks for taking an interest in this story of mine.~ It's my first time writing for this fandom, and it happens to be a rather strange AU of it... Seriously, none of my fanfics ever take place in the canon universe. I always have to put my own weird twist on it. Anyway, I won't give away too much at this point, but this AU contains elements that are heavily stol- *cough cough* that is to say, heavily INSPIRED by something else. So heavily that this thing could almost be a crossover... but because I believe it fits into the general themes of Mirai Nikki, I think it works just as an AU. Don't worry, you won't need to know anything in particular in regards to this story; there are no spoilers, and anything that isn't based on MN will be explained in due time. Anyway, let me know what you think! As this is my first time writing for MN, constructive criticism on areas such as characterisations (or anything, for that matter) would be much appreciated.**

 **Anyway, here are some warnings:**

 **If it wasn't already obvious, this story contains boyxboy/shounen-ai/yaoi/etc., and the eventual pairing will be Yukise (Amano Yukiteru x Akise Aru). If you don't like that sort of thing, then I strongly suggest that you don't read it. Any flamers will be ignored.**

 **I've set the rating at T for now because I'm not really certain about what exactly will happen in later chapters; the current content doesn't contain anything that falls anywhere near the M category. However, there's still the possibility of the rating increasing, so I'll just leave you with that warning for the moment.**

 **Finally, I don't own Mirai Nikki, of course. I'm just a nerdy fangirl writing her weird nerdy fanfics.**

 **Well, now that that's over, I hope you enjoy this story! Reviews are welcome, of course.**

 **And, without further ado...**

* * *

 **Chapter One: Watch And Learn**

 **[Amano Household, Sakurami City]**

 _"He's watching."_

Yukiteru stared blankly at the words which occupied the screen of his phone; two lines of large neon-green pixels. He had to almost squint in order to comprehend them; some sort of glitch had caused the kanji on the second line to distort, as though the characters had been twisted out of shape by some kind of paranormal force.

And then, just as suddenly as those words had appeared, they abruptly vanished from the screen, revealing the usual display of Amano Yukiteru's treasured mobile phone once more.

Yukiteru felt his heart rate catch up with the buzzing neurones in his brain. _What… what was that…? "He's… watching?" What could that possibly mean? Is… Is somebody watching me right now?_

The notion caused the teenager to pan his dark cobalt irises around the room wildly, searching for any signs of intrusion, of unfamiliarity – but it was just his room; the single bed, the dartboard, the desk displaying photographs of himself and his parents – as familiar and unchanging as he had always known them to be.

Yukiteru caught his breath, forcing his heart to stop pumping so wildly. _Seriously, Yuuki, get a hold of yourself. There's nobody here. It was just a glitch. It doesn't mean anything… all it means is that there was a malfunction in the wiring of your phone or something… these things happen._

He didn't pretend to know a lot about computer science, but he had heard of these so-called "impossible coincidences" happening before, on all manner of electrical devices. Even his own mother occasionally came home from work with a wild tale or two surrounding a video game that her company had been recently developing. It was easier to dismiss it when it happened to somebody else, though. Now it was happening to _him_ – and he just couldn't shake off the feeling of trepidation that gripped him, no matter how hard he tried.

Glancing downward, Yukiteru noticed that he had twisted his duvet and bedsheets into a tightly wound helix of fabric as he had frantically checked his room for danger earlier. Disentangling himself from the mess, he swung his feet over the side of the bed, placed his heels flat on the floor, and breathed deeply. "Nothing but a glitch," he uttered, over and over, in an attempt to convince himself.

Once sufficiently calmed, he glanced back to his phone. It was the same display as always – the electric-blue background that he had not bothered to change since the mobile had come into his possession, with all his icons and apps floating in their various places on the screen. He opened up his diary, creating a new log for the current date. For his first entry that day, he wrote:

 ** _9:07 A.M. [Home]_** _I discovered a strange glitch when I turned my phone on this morning. It was weird, but I should probably just ignore it._

Flipping his phone closed, Yukiteru placed the indigo gadget on his pillow and stretched, preparing to get ready for the day ahead. He threw on a pair of beige capris, a blue shirt and a black sleeveless jacket before tying up the laces of his boots tightly and pulling his trademark hat firmly over his obsidian hair – all the time trying to push the memory of the glitch to the back of his mind.

"Let's see how darts goes today."

Reaching into the pouch that he always kept on the right side of his waist, the boy withdrew a yellow dart and flung it toward the dartboard opposite his bed. The projectile impacted the board, just millimetres short of a bull's eye.

"Hm, not bad," he murmured. "Guess it's going to be a pretty good day."

As he picked up his diary to write down his score, the screen suddenly flickered. For a split second Yukiteru's body jolted, but then the usual display appeared once again.

 _Nothing,_ he thought through gritted teeth as he recorded his second entry that day. _It's a tiny glitch. It's nothing I should ever be worried about. …Right?_

 **[Sakurami City High School]**

The first lesson of the day was Mathematics, and instead of listening to the droning voice of his teacher detailing the rules of trigonometry and Pythagoras (a rather ridiculous name, Yukiteru thought, and one that he could barely pronounce), the blue-eyed boy entertained himself by observing the antics of the students, all the while discreetly punching in entries of what he saw unfold around him into his diary.

Gasai Yuno was the only student who appeared to take any remote interest in the ramblings of Mr Hashimoto. She was scrawling down the answers to the examples the teacher wrote on the blackboard rapidly - sweat beading beneath her rose locks as her brow folded in concentration. She was working almost as though her life depended on it. Then again, perhaps it did.

Yukiteru had heard of a rumour that suggested that her parents worked her so hard that she was never allowed a holiday… or even a short break, for that matter. That seemed a little extreme, although it was common knowledge that Yuno's parents were strict. They even had a specific curfew in place that she had to arrive home by.

Kousaka Ouji and his gang were messing around and picking on the other students – no surprises there. They had, however, spared Yukiteru his usual daily torment, or at least for the duration of this lesson. Kousaka himself was kicking the back of the seat of the student in front of him whilst simultaneously passing derisive comments such as, "Y'know, I saw your mother on my way to school this morning and I thought I'd finally found the secret to why you look so hideous." He burst into peals of chortling laughter afterwards, as though he had just cracked the ultimate joke of the year.

Nonosaka Mao was gazing adoringly across the room at Hino Hinata, her eyes totally fixed on the other girl as if she were the only other human being in the world. A growing blush adorned Mao's features as Hinata herself continued chatting with the girl next to her, oblivious. There were plenty of rumours about those two as well… to say the least.

As the lesson drew to a close, the tone of the school bells seconds from sounding, Yukiteru looked down rather proudly at the set of entries he had collected.

 ** _9:50 A.M. [Maths Classroom]_** _Gasai is paying attention to Hashimoto-sensei's examples. Looks as though she's concentrating really hard._

 ** _10:02 A.M. [Maths Classroom]_** _Kousaka is tormenting other students again, but at least it's not me this time._

 ** _10:15 A.M. [Maths Classroom]_** _Nonosaka is gazing at Hino almost like she wants to kiss her. Are the rumours true?_

Yes. Observing. That was what Amano Yukiteru did best. By observing, he could learn anything about anyone, without ever having to talk to any of them. But still… what was it like, to have a friend? To have someone, other than your parents, whom you could put complete trust in? Yukiteru had never experienced friendship… and, if he was honest, he longed almost desperately to know what it meant. As much as he told himself he didn't need friends… that he had his imagination… that he had his diary… it never seemed to be enough.

But just as the school bells sounded, and Mr Hashimoto motioned for the students to stand up out of their seats, time appeared to abruptly grind to a halt.

Everything became suddenly monochrome, and Yukiteru wondered for a moment if he had somehow lost his colour vision. But then, his view was suddenly filled with red – a dark, crimson liquid was seeping through the cracks in the floor, steadily rising upwards. It seemed… It seemed almost as if the building itself was bleeding uncontrollably.

But then, as the fluid began to pool at his feet, rising up past his ankles, his shins – and then, as it come into contact with his skin, he felt its warmth (it practically scalded him) and its stickiness – Yukiteru realised that this liquid was indeed blood. He even spied organs floating in the broth – a heart here, a liver there – all graphically outlined. The stench of gore began to fill the air.

 _My God…_

But the blood wasn't just rising from the floor. As Yukiteru glanced around, he saw waterfalls of scarlet cascading off his fellow students from their mouths, noses, eyes – dribbling down their chins and pooling on the creases in their clothes, making a haunting _drip, drip_ sound as they hit the surface of the literal bloodbath that was filling the room at a phenomenal rate. The haemorrhaging students held expressions that could only be described as _dead_ – and yet their lacklustre irises all seemed to focus on Yukiteru.

 _Why… why me?_ he thought, bewildered and utterly terrified. Their vacant expressions were somehow accusing… did he do this? What did he do to cause this?

He wanted nothing more than to scream and to run, but he could do neither of those things – his muscles were frozen as the blood lapped up at his shirt, crawling steadily higher until his mouth filled with its metallic flavour.

Yukiteru submerged, his eyes clamped shut tightly. Despite his efforts, his eyelids unhinged almost of their own accord. But instead of seeing floating organs in a world of macabre claret, as he had expected, he was instead greeted by the sight of a man surrounded by computers and wiring. The hum of the machines was palpable, and the only illumination originated from the laptop that the man was hunched over, so his face could not be seen. As he watched, Yukiteru's field of view suddenly narrowed, zooming in ever closer towards the laptop. Long, bony fingers danced relentlessly across a keyboard that was marked with strange, alien characters – not kanji, not even English – but something Yukiteru had never seen before. As the man typed, the strange characters appeared superimposed over the boy's vision. He could not tell what the message read, but somehow, reading it filled him with utter dread.

 _What… what is going on here…?_

 _"He's watching,"_ a voice whispered, delicately but urgently, into Yukiteru's ear. _"He's always watching…"_

Yukiteru could hold it in no longer.

He screamed.


	2. Chapter 2: Deadly Rose, Explosive Lilac

**Chapter Two: Deadly Rose, Explosive Lilac**

"Amano-kun…?"

Two distinct voices spoke the name in unison, both overflowing with concern.

Those four syllables shattered Yukiteru's vision like a sledgehammer through ice. And when the boy cautiously opened his eyes, there wasn't a drop of blood to be seen – nor any strange alien letters of code. He was back in his Mathematics classroom, which at this point was empty but for himself, Mr Hashimoto and Gasai Yuno. The wide eyes of the latter two settled on Yukiteru as though he had just developed some sort of monstrous growth or boil in the centre of his forehead.

"S-sensei…" Yukiteru addressed his teacher as his entire body shook uncontrollably, causing his words to fragment as they flew off his lips. "Y-you… didn't you s-see th-that… j-just now?"

Hashimoto raised an eyebrow in a characteristic look of scepticism – the same expression he donned whenever a student gave a feeble excuse for not handing in their homework. "Amano-kun, you were staring off into space for five whole minutes after the other students had left. Gasai-san and I had tried to get you to respond but you just wouldn't. Or not until now, at least."

Indigo eyes blinked rapidly as the mind they were connected to attempted to process this new information. _Wait… is he saying that what I saw… was just a daydream, an illusion? Am I… am I going mad…?_

Frantically, Yukiteru turned to Yuno, figuring that she may at least have an idea of what it could possibly mean. "G-Gasai-san… You didn't see anything either, d-did you? N-nothing at all?"

For a long moment, Yuno did not utter a single word. She simply stared at him through glassy magenta eyes, totally unblinking; almost as if she had entered some sort of trance. "Amano-kun…" she spoke slowly, softly, putting as little emphasis as possible onto every syllable. "I don't know what you are talking about…"

With that, the rose-haired girl pivoted towards the door, only pausing once to glance back at him. But in that instance, the glazed expression was gone – replaced by something that, for Yukiteru, appeared far more sinister. Her gaze was hungry – possessive, almost – and although her wide smile seemed friendly enough at first, coupled with the expression in her eyes, it was… savage.

"See you later, Amano-kun." And then she was gone, without a trace, as though she was never in the room.

From behind him, Yukiteru heard the deep sigh of his teacher. "Amano-kun, you're probably just stressed and tired. I suggest you get a drink and take it up with the doctor if you're still worried about it."

Yukiteru barely heard him. _I… I know what I saw. That didn't seem like any sort of vision that my mind had fabricated… it was more like… more like watching an extremely high-definition video…_

 _Only… I was_ inside _the video…_

The noirette did not notice himself stumble out of the classroom, did not hear himself reply, "Yes, I'll do that, sensei…" in a low monotone. His legs moved unconsciously around the once-familiar building as Yukiteru focused all his waking thoughts on one thing: attempting to figure out what the _hell_ had just happened.

But the more he thought, the more confusing it became. How was he supposed to begin analysing what he had just seen? It wasn't like he knew anything about psychology. He was just a fourteen-year-old nobody with a phone…

Yukiteru's thoughts abruptly stopped, along with his footsteps, at the word _phone._ He recalled the events of that morning, of waking up to find that mysterious and chilling message displayed in distorted lettering across the screen: _"He's watching."_ And then again, not ten minutes ago, he had heard those very words, heard them spoken aloud…

A quick delve into his pocket and a flick of his hand placed the gadget into Yukiteru's palm, keypad and screen emitting their signature cerulean glow. An icon on the display told him that he had received a text message.

A sudden lump formed in the boy's constricted throat, making it impossible for him to swallow. The device shook in his hand, and the icon along with it. He knew that he didn't _want_ to read the text, although he couldn't rationalise the reason as to why. Why should this text have to be another vague and unsettling message? It could be a prank for all he knew. And yet, that vision was no prank… Either he had descended into insanity, or that image –

"Are you Amano Yukiteru?"

A question so blunt and direct that it practically slapped him back into the tangible world. "Uh…" said boy murmured clumsily as he met the single mauve iris of the woman who was now towering above him. Or was it just that her belittling gaze made him feel dwarfed…?

She was dressed in a similar fashion to most of the female teachers at Sakurami High; a dark blazer, crisp white shirt, black pencil skirt and an amethyst tie that matched her one visible eye perfectly. Her long violet locks were drawn into a ponytail behind her head, exposing the eyepatch that concealed her right eye (or whatever lay beneath it) from view. Yukiteru was certain he had never seen this teacher before, so he could only assume that she had just started here.

"Y…yes," he uttered hesitantly.

That unnaturally purplish eyeball scrutinised him for several seconds, analysing and contemplating him, as if he were a specimen in a glass case at an exhibition of extinct creatures. After this procedure had been completed, she once again met his gaze. The beginnings of a triumphant smirk were noticeable in the sly curve of her upper lip.

"Good. That's all I needed to know." And with that dismissive sentence, she sauntered briskly past him, footsteps echoing down the corridor that Yukiteru had not realised until now was devoid of students.

 _I guess I must be pretty late to my next class by now…_

But that thought faded from his mind completely as he considered what had just happened to him. The entire sequence of events he had just witnessed was bizarre, to say the least. And that woman… there was something… edgy about her appearance. What was she after?

Yukiteru knew that if he continued to think about it, he would only fall deeper into the mire, so he tried to push those thoughts to the back of his head. And yet he could not prevent them from haunting him. They were wrapped around his cerebral cortex like neurological ropes - ropes that refused to loosen their hold.

 **[Sakurami City]**

After a full five hours of pretending that everything was still perfectly ordinary, on his journey home from school, as he passed the cluttered windows of a convenience store, Amano Yukiteru finally relented.

Two quick jabs of his finger on the keypad took him to his phone's home screen. The icon indicating the unread text message still glowed insistently.

Yukiteru was still hesitant. He had managed to recollect himself over the last few hours, and he felt almost as though the events of that morning were a lifetime ago… if they had indeed happened at all. Did he really want to plunge back into that realm of insanity again?

 _I'm being irrational,_ he thought. _This is nothing. Nothing at all…_

He still couldn't find a rational reason for the apprehension, rising steadily like acid within his gut. There _was_ no reason for it. And yet…

The noirette shook his head as his legs automatically swerved a corner, his eyes still glued to the screen of his phone. _It's_ nothing. _Nothing!_

He opened the text.

For a nanosecond the screen showed nothing but blinding white, until dark blurs came into focus as a long string of letters and numbers:

9a23wXr184nZYf5A wXr1UiN2 T89t4gwOE5r06yCvE7n8rV414gwO E7n8Yf5A U9hj6yCvwXr1 Nkl64gwO84nZD2sXU9hj Vx78453d iG5awXr14gwOD2sXE7n8U9hjC3nS

"It's just… gibberish…" Yukiteru murmured softly.

But he knew that it wasn't. He _knew_ that couldn't possibly be the case. Otherwise, there would be no adrenalin pumping through his veins, no uncontrollable trembling in his extremities, as his eyes flickered over the on-screen digits.

His fingers trembled so rapidly, in fact, that his phone slipped out of his dampened, clammy grip. Yukiteru's breath caught in his throat as the gadget hit the paving stones below him and skittered down the street like a puck across ice.

For a moment, Yukiteru stood paralysed, almost unable to believe that he had dropped his phone – his only companion, his source of entertainment, his pastime – dropped it so easily. He dared not think the unthinkable, that his phone could perhaps be –

Without another thought, he made a lunge for it, only for his fingers to close around vacant air.

"Amano-kun! You dropped your phone!"

Yukiteru's head snapped up, eyes meeting the beaming face of Gasai Yuno. She held the indigo gadget between her fingertips as she flashed a bright, friendly smile down at him.

"G-Gasai-san…?" Yukiteru blurted absent-mindedly as he scrambled back to his feet. "Well, uh, thanks, I guess…"

Yuno's smile merely widened in response. "It's okay, Amano-kun," she replied courteously, but made no move to give the phone back.

"I-It's not… broken, is it?"

"It's fine." Yuno's grin was rather disorientating.

Speaking of which, where was he? Upon noticing his surroundings for the first time, Yukiteru realised that they were only vaguely familiar. _I must've taken a wrong turn when I was distracted by that text,_ he concluded.

He and Yuno stood at the foot of a large construction site; a matrix of steel scaffolds and iron beams towered above him, forming the metallic skeleton of a half-formed building. "So, uh… do you know wh-"

He was cut off suddenly by a deafening _BOOM_ that drowned out all other sound – it was so powerful that Yukiteru felt the hairs on the back of his neck vibrate.

And then, several tonnes of shattered ceramic and ferrous shrapnel rained down from above in a frenzied storm of debris.

Yukiteru was powerless to move as he watched a shapeless behemoth of metal, contorted grotesquely by the explosion, tumble down straight towards him. He had barely registered the fact that he was about to die before a sudden impact collided with his chest, tackling him to the pavement. The debris landed not two metres from Yukiteru's face, spraying his cheeks with concrete ejecta.

He was frozen in shock, utterly paralysed, until he took in a shuddering gasp of air. That was when he noticed that Yuno was on top of him, pinning him down with strength that did not match her physique.

She was the one who had tackled him. She had saved him, Yukiteru realised.

A dramatic change had come over Yuno's features. Her magenta gaze was unfocused, her expression unreadable. There was not a hint of friendliness in her face – by contrast, her maniacal, dilated pupils now made her seem raw and dangerous. She still gripped Yukiteru's phone in her left hand.

"Gasai-san…? Yuno…?" Yukiteru mumbled uncertainly.

"Don't move." Yuno had turned her gaze away from him and instead glanced upwards, towards the apex of the tower. Her eyes narrowed.

Then she grasped Yukiteru's wrist so tightly he was almost certain that she had snapped it. As yet another cataclysmic explosion shook the ground, Yuno leapt into the air.

She shot upwards like a bullet fired from a gun, tearing Yukiteru along behind her, at such a ferocious speed that the wind caused the noirette's eyes to stream. Yuno landed smoothly on an iron beam one hundred feet from the ground, having made the leap with her own two legs.

As Yukiteru's feet touched the scaffold, his knees buckled beneath him and he fell backwards, only just managing not to fall off. "Wh-what was that just now?" he questioned, wide-eyed. "That… that wasn't even physically possible!"

Yuno did not appear to hear him. She quickly scanned the area, presumably trying to pinpoint the perpetrator of the explosions. The air was filled with the stench of melted metal, burnt wood and smoke – indeed, not ten feet away, a gaping, scorched hole in the scaffolding loomed, cutting the two of them off from the rest of the building. Another, similar, charred hole was visible a few feet below.

Yukiteru trembled as he stole a glance down at the street below. Chaos ruled the scene – charred lumps of debris had landed on nearby cars and blockaded the road. The distant screams of people and of car alarms wafted upwards from what seemed like a million miles below.

"It's okay, Amano-kun. I'll protect you." Her words were obviously meant to be reassuring, but her tone came out as rather menacing. "From _her…_ "

"…'Her'…?" Yukiteru repeated in confusion. Was Yuno implying that she knew the person who had been causing this destruction?

A sudden cackle reverberated around the area; a mixture of sarcasm and pure destructive joy. "So you think he needs protecting from _me,_ is that so? What about being protected from _you?"_ A feminine voice, somehow eerily familiar, echoed across the scaffolding.

In that same instant, the owner of the voice stepped out from behind a vertical support beam on the other side of the gap. Yukiteru blinked in recognition. Although her mauve hair now hung loosely and she was dressed in full combat gear, that eyepatch and that one mania-filled eye were unmistakeable. This was the same woman who had appeared at Sakurami High that very same morning – the strange new teacher who had confirmed his identity.

"You're just a rogue, Uryuu Minene. You've caused nothing but destruction to this world, so you don't have the right to say such things!" Yuno spat fiercely.

Yukiteru innately squirmed backwards. He had never seen Yuno this angry before – she looked ready to tear this woman, Uryuu Minene or whoever she was, apart, piece by piece.

"Rogue?" The comment caused Minene to burst once again into cackling laughter. "Well, if that's the title you wish to give me, then so be it. I'm done with following the orders of that psychopath. I think I'll find my own way from here on out. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Are you sure about that?" A flash of steel caught in the sunlight as Yuno withdrew the honed blade of a kitchen knife from within her jacket.

On the other side of the hundred-foot drop, a violet eyebrow rose in incredulity. "What are you going to do with that? Pick your teeth with it?"

Yuno's expression was deadly serious. "I'm going to take out your other eye."

Minene was totally unperturbed. "Well," she uttered casually, reaching inside a pouch at her thigh and withdrawing a large black device in the shape of a walkie-talkie – her detonator, presumably. "I'm going to take out both you and your precious boyfriend if you don't agree to give me that phone _now._ "

Yuno glanced downwards. Sure enough, attached to the metal beam beneath her feet was a square box emitting insistent, angry red pulses of light. "So you think you can take me down with this," Yuno mused, before meeting the gaze of her adversary. "Think again, Uryuu."

"No need," she replied complacently. "I already have."

Her confident smirk seemed to throw Yuno off balance. "Wait, are you saying that… But how!?" she demanded.

The violet-haired demolition expert hummed amusedly, folding her arms. "After that idiotic overlord of yours blocked me from using the Ability, I found that it wasn't too difficult to infiltrate the Akashic Records and retrieve the access codes. I don't even think he realises this, but he made one hell of a mistake back then. You see, _nothing_ in this world is Minene-proof." Her amethystine gaze moved past Yuno, focusing instead on Yukiteru. "Not even him… And you know what happens to Subjects that die in this world, don't you?"

"You were once a Subject yourself, Uryuu, so there's no need for you to be so uptight," Yuno growled menacingly. She gripped the handle of her weapon. "And if you so much as touch him, I _will_ murder you."

"In that case, I'll take that as a no. I guess you don't care about his life after all, then. You should've given over that damn phone." And with that, she jabbed a button on her detonator.

And then, everything erupted – literally, everything. Yukiteru felt as though he was falling through the magma chamber of a volcano – his skin blistered and seared, his clothes and hair burnt away, and the pain was too great for him to even comprehend. He couldn't see Yuno, or Minene, or anything, for that matter. He was battered back and forth like a ragdoll in a hurricane. But just before he lost his last shred of consciousness, he felt himself fall against something – something warm, yet not searingly hot, and surprisingly soft and comfortable.

And then, a voice spoke in little more than a whisper. It was soft and reassuring, but at the same time, it sounded strangely familiar.

"Sorry I'm late, Yukiteru-kun."


	3. Chapter 3: A Rift In Reality

**Chapter Three: A Rift In Reality**

"Good morning, Yukiteru-kun."

The soft voice seemed to gently pull the black-haired teenager back to consciousness. His eyelids slowly opened, revealing a hemisphere of azure blue far above, completely unbroken by cloud but for several solitary wisps of white. As the image came into focus, his vision registered the face of another person – first the bright scarlet irises, standing out against pale features like roses in a field of snow; and then the strands of messy white hair that framed the face like a bleached halo in the morning sunlight.

Those crimson eyes settled on Yukiteru's own, displaying a profound fondness and contentedness, whilst the smile that accompanied it managed to appear at once calm and full of longing. As the red-eyed newcomer shifted further into Yukiteru's field of vision, he could see that it was a boy roughly around his own age, dressed in a short-sleeved, collared white shirt and plain jeans. The white-haired boy knelt beside him; he was so close, Yukiteru could feel the warmth emanating from his body.

Perplexed at the entire situation, the noirette sat up slowly. He desperately grasped at broken fragments of memories that floated aimlessly through his mind, but he couldn't make sense of the erratic jumble. His eyes fixed once again on those of the other boy. Nothing at all struck him as familiar about the albino's appearance, which raised the question: how on earth did this person know his name?

"Do… do I know you?" he mumbled, his voice shaky with uncertainty.

In response, the other teenager chuckled. "Within a different reality, perhaps…" he replied, his tone and expression creating an undertone of melancholy, just for a moment. But then he shifted back to the gentle, friendly demeanour that he had expressed beforehand. "My name is Akise Aru. You might not know me. But I have known of you for quite some time."

Yukiteru was slightly unsettled by that revelation, but the longer he gazed at the boy beside him, the more comfortable he felt, somehow. This stranger didn't seem to pose any danger to him… The noirette figured that if he had meant to harm him, he probably would've done so already.

"Akise… Aru…" he murmured slowly, tracing every syllable of the name with his lips as if testing for familiarity… but he found none. He gradually sat up, balancing on his knees as he slowly became more aware of his surroundings.

Breaking eye contact with the albino boy, Yukiteru's cerulean orbs panned the area. A wide expanse of verdant grass stretched out in all directions seemingly infinitely. Viridian hills undulated along the horizon and into the distance, broken only by several lone trees that stood majestically with their boughs stretched out wide like leafy umbrellas. Dewdrops sparkled under the dawn light, causing the hills to appear as though they had been scattered with diamonds.

The scene was so distractingly beautiful, so serene, and so unfamiliar that Yukiteru was convinced for a moment that it had been conjured up entirely by his dreaming subconscious. It didn't look as if he was still in Japan, let alone in his hometown of Sakurami City.

He opened his mouth to pose a question, but it seemed as though Akise had already deduced what he was going to ask.

"My apologies, Yukiteru-kun… I was aware that the transition may have confused you somewhat. So, to answer the question of where we are now… Well, we aren't in Japan any more, for one thing. The truth is… This place… Well, it's _nowhere,_ really."

Yukiteru's head rapidly snapped back to face Akise. "Wh-what do you mean?"

The pale boy's expression became distant for a moment. "Ah… how do I explain this?" As his claret gaze once again focused on Yukiteru, he muttered, "I suppose I'll have to start right from the beginning…"

The noirette's dark eyebrows rose in confusion. What on earth was he suggesting? Yukiteru felt as though he should know, but his memories were still an incomprehensible jumble that prevented him from clearly distinguishing fact and fiction.

"Yukiteru-kun." Akise placed a hand on said teenager's shoulder, causing the latter to blink in surprise at the warmth of the touch. "What I am about to say will be difficult for you to take in… and yet you must try to accept it, for your own sake. Doubtlessly, your mind will be able to think of a million and one reasons why you should dismiss what I am about to tell you, but Yukiteru-kun, please…" He paused, his gaze holding the noirette's own intensely. "Listen to me."

Discombobulated and yet rather intrigued, the blue-eyed boy merely nodded. He attempted to swallow the lump that had built up in his throat.

"Well… The fact of the matter is that this place, the area that we are in now… isn't real." Without waiting for a reply, Akise rapidly continued. "It is, in all senses of the word, a fabrication. Much like everything you thought you knew; your family, friends, your entire past life… and indeed, the entire world in which you live in - all an elaborate façade to cover up the reality of your situation."

Akise spread his hands, gesturing at the rolling hills in the distance. "Everything you see here… Everything you feel, touch, taste or smell, was placed in here, created and programmed for a specific purpose. The world in which you grew up and lived your life so far… Well, that rule applies to everything over there, too."

"So… you're telling me… Nothing's real? It's all just an illusion?" It was as Akise had said; he was having a difficult time believing it. Especially as everything - right down to the smooth grass between his fingers and the heat of the sunlight on his back – felt so _real_.

"The world that you know was created as an experiment," Akise continued. "An elaborate Petri dish, if you like. And you… amongst a few hundred thousand others… are Subjects within this experiment."

"And what does that mean?" Yukiteru inquired, his mind struggling to comprehend the words that his ears picked up.

"It means that you are being manipulated and used against your will," Akise replied, his calm tone somehow making the sentence seem all the more disturbing. "Well, I would assume that you – the _real_ you – would have given consent to taking part in the experiment at first. But I'm fairly certain that you barely realised at the time just what you were getting yourself into."

Yukiteru rubbed his head. Suddenly, the soft texture of his own black locks felt strange and alien. "Does that mean that my memories –"

"Yes. They, just like everything else, are fake. Believe it or not, Yukiteru-kun, but you have only existed in this world for three years, not for the fourteen that you might've originally thought…"

"And all the other Subjects…?"

"They are in exactly the same position as you." Akise chuckled softly at that point. "It's ironic, but the Subjects are the only things that can really be described as _real_ in this world. And they aren't even aware of the fact that nothing else is…"

Suddenly, a memory resurfaced from the depths of Yukiteru's opaque ocean of memories. He vividly recalled the showdown he had witnessed between Gasai Yuno and that strange violet-haired woman, Uryuu Minene, just before he had blacked out. Both of them had mentioned that word – _Subject._ But they had both used the word as though it didn't apply to them…

"But… Akise-san… If you're not a Subject…" Yukiteru reached out briefly and brushed his fingers against the creases of fabric on the albino's shoulder. "Does that mean that you aren't real?"

"In a sense," the white-haired boy replied, smiling. "I was created and programmed like the rest of this world. But unlike your parents or friends, who were created simply as extra ornaments to add to the deception, I was given a very different purpose… and for that reason, I was given consciousness." He laughed suddenly. "But you wouldn't be able to tell if that was true or if I was just an ornament from only that, would you? After all, ornaments are programmed to ensure that Subjects believe utterly in their existence."

"But then… if you _aren't_ an ornament… What does that make you?"

"That is a very good question, Yukiteru-kun." Akise appeared to emit a silent sigh. "What _am_ I? I used to be quite certain of who I was… but no longer." He shook his head slowly before continuing. "…If something is created for a certain purpose… but then no longer fulfils that purpose, then does that mean that it is something else entirely? I'm sorry that I cannot give you a direct answer to that question, Yukiteru-kun, but… what I was _supposed_ to be… my purpose… was as an administrator of this experiment. A Regulator, a control, to ensure that nothing went wrong and everything ran as smoothly as planned. There are others like me… two of which you have already met."

Without Akise even explicitly saying, Yukiteru had an uncomfortable feeling he knew who he was referring to. "But… you're not _like_ like them, are you?"

"No," Akise replied reassuringly. "Gasai-san and Uryuu-san both have their own separate motives for pursuing you, and I… well…" The pale teenager gripped Yukiteru's forearms, as though concerned that the noirette would suddenly disintegrate into fine particles and dissipate on the wind. "I would _never_ hurt you, Yukiteru-kun. I wish only to protect you from harm. That is why I stepped in to save you earlier from the bomb that Uryuu had detonated… and brought you here."

Yukiteru's eyes widened. He recalled yet another memory; of a soft whisper in his ear just after the explosion – a whisper in Akise's voice. But even at that time, his voice had still sounded familiar… Where had he heard it before then?

And then, it came to him.

"I-I heard your voice… in a strange vision," he stammered. "I… I thought I was going mad at the time… maybe… maybe I _am_ crazy…"

"No, Yukiteru-kun." Akise leant back into a kneeling position, closing his eyes. "That… was a message that I had sent you. I had been trying to contact you before that as well… to warn you of what was _really_ going on –"

 _"'_ _He's watching',"_ Yukiteru interrupted. "That was what you said, right? But who were you talking about? What about all that blood, and that man with the computers –"

"Yukiteru-kun," Akise addressed him urgently, cutting through his sentence like a knife through cheese. "Do you have any idea who that man is?"

Before the other boy could answer, a sudden tearing sound filled the area; as though a piece of paper had been rent, only much more profound. Yukiteru did not just hear the sound but _felt_ it – it was as if his body and the space around him were being ripped apart as well.

The sound caused both males to glance rapidly in the direction of the sound. As it turned out, it was the sky that was rupturing – a gigantic fissure that must've been a least a mile in length had appeared, cutting straight through the cloudless blue. Beyond the gap, nothing could be seen but for an endless, rippling stream of fluctuating neon-green lights, like unnatural stars shining through pitch blackness.

Akise sighed as he stood up. "I didn't anticipate them finding us this quickly. Sorry, Yukiteru-kun. I had hoped that this temporary safe haven would have sheltered us for at least a few hours, but it seems that one of the other Regulators has managed to breach the security encryptions I put in place already."

Yukiteru did not, could not wrench his gaze from the steadily widening tear in the sky. "One of the o-other R-regulators?" he repeated shakily.

 _Who would be mad enough to rip apart the sky to get to me?_ he wondered. But he could already hazard a guess.

"AMANO-KUN!" Gasai Yuno screamed through the gap. A magenta eye was now visible within the rupture.

"Yukiteru-kun… I think our best option would be to flee. I know that you must still have many questions, but they shall have to be answered later." Akise's mouth twisted into a grimace as he glanced up at the sky. "Usually, I can hold my own against Gasai-san, but recently, she's grown more powerful… it's his influence, no doubt. In any case, I don't want to risk you falling into her hands…"

The noirette scrambled to his feet. "What… what is it that she wants from me?"

Akise's back was turned. Yukiteru could not exactly see what he was doing, but the albino was surrounded by a multitude of glowing green digits, each forming a unique and unidentifiable character. Akise expertly manoeuvred his fingers across the digits, as though manipulating a gigantic keyboard or touchscreen.

"I'm sorry that I can't answer that right now," the red-eyed boy apologised. "But let me just say this: Deus Ex Machina made a terrible mistake."

"What? Who?" Yukiteru garbled.

Crimson eyes met indigo once again as Akise glanced over his shoulder. The digits surrounding him had condensed into a two-dimensional entryway that bathed his features in ethereal greenish light.

The white-haired Regulator grabbed Yukiteru by the wrist and pulled him in close. "Well, first of all, he unintentionally made it possible for Regulators to fall in love with Subjects."

Yukiteru's mind was torn between trying to figure out exactly what Akise had meant by saying that and continually glancing skywards in anticipation. Yuno had now created a gap that was large enough for her to poke her entire head through.

"Tell me, Yukiteru-kun. Do you trust me?"

The abruptness of the question caused Yukiteru's mind to snap back into focus. It seemed like a ridiculous question, coming from the mouth of someone he had met less than an hour ago. But what other option did he have? He definitely didn't want to stick around for Yuno. He'd already seen some of what she was capable of, and it frightened him. The last thing he wanted was to see what she would attempt next.

"Y-yes," he replied, with only the slightest hesitation.

"Good." Akise fell backwards into the void he had created.

Eyes widening, Yukiteru felt himself being pulled along through the hand that had grabbed his wrist.

And then, he fell.


	4. Chapter 4: Off The Records

**Well, here it is. A month later than promised, but better late than never, right?**

 **Anyway, this is yet another heavy exposition chapter, mainly because this AU is goddamn complex and so many things need explaining... So many things. But starting from next chapter, I'm hoping to expand the story's scope a little bit with more character appearances, and hopefully we'll even get a portion told from Akise's point of view. Hopefully.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the fourth chapter! Others shall hopefully be coming soon, and I'll try to get Chapter Five in before December... just remember that it's not a guarantee. Although I'm working on some other stuff behind the scenes that still has yet to be published, this story still ranks high in my list of fanfiction priorities. I even have a vague idea for an ending for this one, which is more than can be said for most of my other fanfictions.**

 **In any case, watch this space. Feel free to comment about anything in regards to this chapter or the story as a whole. Reviews, as always, are much appreciated!**

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Off The Records**

"What… is…?"

Yukiteru hadn't had any particular preconceived expectations for what might possibly reveal itself as the arcane digits reassembled before him. But whatever his mind could have fabricated, whatever seemingly prescient notion he may have had, it would not have, could not have been anything near as outlandish as… this.

A seemingly infinite, semi-translucent walkway stretched outward in the directions of eight cardinal points, forming an asterisk-like shape. An explosive crossroads.

Opaque, abstract blocks with a vaguely metallic sheen, variant in terms of shape and size, constantly orbited the walkways in a series of endlessly spiralling tiers. Occasionally one would emit a harsh neon pulse along with a helical string of esoteric symbol-code; the flash was too brief to allow time for the observer to look away, but bright enough to leave a burning afterimage on the back of Yukiteru's retinas.

The blocks formed tunnel-like structures, hemming closely together to obliterate the background light, if there even was such a thing. However, at the vanishing points of each walkway as they extended into the distance, a tiny glow - the impression of daylight - could be seen. But, reflecting on all the ridiculous things he had seen, heard and experienced since that first ominous message had appeared on his phone, Yukiteru now sincerely doubted that that speck of light was in any way an indicator of the outside world.

 _An outside world… Is there even such a thing?_ Akise had left him with too many questions, and now showed him this… this _place_ which had, essentially, detonated all cognition within his mind.

"This is the Akashic Records." Akise's gentle voice did not waver, even as he busied himself manually manipulating incoherent characters. Crimson eyes tilted over his shoulder at the noirette as he spoke. "It's the memory store of the world, Yukiteru-kun. Essentially a computer hard drive… only made infinite. In fact, it's more akin to the memory store of a human brain." He sighed lightly, his encryption now complete, the glowing symbols disappearing back into the nothing from which they had come from. "The active system for data manipulation here is so complex, it's practically a conscious being in of itself."

Yukiteru gazed at the revolving shapes above and below, and in every direction. He shuffled his feet uncomfortably on the glasslike walkway. "Can… can it sense us?" he muttered, fearful of the answer.

Akise shook his head and smiled reassuringly. "I mean 'conscious' in the loosest sense possible. Although its capacity and function is at such a level it can no longer be described as a machine, that doesn't mean that it is conscious in the same way as you or I. True human consciousness… is still something the Akashic Records lacks. Deus Ex Machina only modelled the Regulators after the human mind. I'm sorry, Yukiteru-kun, for being so vague…"

"I-It's okay." There was that name again. Deus Ex Machina. Both this time and the time before Akise had pronounced the name very carefully, as though in anticipation, and with the residual ghost of respectful reverence for whom he named. However, Yukiteru could still, just about, detect a cautiously suppressed tone of frustration and bitterness, underscored by sadness or confusion. And that stew of emotion was bubbling and leaking to the surface, so very slightly.

"Akise-kun… um… who _is_ Deus Ex Machina?" Yukiteru spoke, somewhat hesitantly.

Claret irises flickered in the pulsating incandescence. Akise did not seem surprised at the question; in fact, quite the opposite. "We'll talk as we walk," he responded. His calm tone was incongruent with the restless behaviour of his eyeballs. "Although we're relatively safe here, especially with the security algorithm I used to override the area's access code… Well, there are still loopholes. Shortcuts. Regulators know about these things… So it'll only be a matter of time before Gasai-san comes for us again."

With that, Akise walked briskly in a seemingly randomised direction, but with a purposeful gait that suggested he was heading to a particular destination. Full of intrigue, Yukiteru followed only just behind. The steady _clunk_ of the soles of the two boys' shoes hitting the walkway reverberated through the infinite space.

Akise bounced back to the previous subject almost immediately. "Deus Ex Machina… well, it's really in his name. In Latin, it translates to 'God from the Machine'. He is, in all senses of the word, the god of this world that we currently reside in. He was its original creator, and continues to maintain it to this day. He's always watching us. Although he used to rely on the Regulators to do that job for him… well, a few complications meant that he now intervenes himself more often than ever before." The albino glanced directly at Yukiteru. "Right now, I gather that he's not quite sure who to trust anymore. It's not just the fact that Uryuu-san and I have defected. Gasai Yuno is just about the only person he still puts any sort of faith in… but she's a maverick in her own way. Even Deus's closest advisor is a bit dubious, truth be told."

 _So he's the one Akise was trying to tell me about all this time. He's the guy in the visions…_ "Is… is he a real god, then?" Yukiteru asked uncertainly.

Yet another sigh flew from Akise's lips. "Well, yes, insofar as this world is concerned. But remember, as convincing as it seems, this world _isn't real_. Therefore, that makes Deus just as legitimate as the world he has created." The crimson-eyed boy paused, his eyes resting for a moment on the alternations of purple and blue light dancing above. "Deus Ex Machina is not his real name, either. I'm fairly certain of it. In the outside world, he's known by something else. Of course, he never told me this - I'm working on theories and assumptions – but he definitely implied it. My guess is that 'Deus Ex Machina' is his admin name, the name he uses to govern this world as its Supreme Administrator. I know this is a lot to take in, Yukiteru-kun, but…" Akise's eyes closed for a brief second. "In reality, Deus Ex Machina is just another human like you. Albeit a very brilliant one…"

"I… I see," said noirette pronounced slowly.

The albino met his eyes and smiled genuinely. "He isn't immortal. There's got to be some way of taking him down." He abruptly halted, causing Yukiteru to almost bump into him. "And this is where we start."

Akise's so-called starting point wasn't really much to look at; a generic point in the walkway, just like any other on its infinite continuum. That was, until he lightly stroked the air (or whatever it was) just before his face. Once again, glowing pixels and sigils disassembled and reassembled, forming into a staircase leading up from the walkway into a glowing alcove within the rotating blocks; a doorless arch leading into a fairly spacious, light room walled by bookshelves. Yukiteru heard himself exhale as he followed the Regulator up the stairs.

Cobalt eyes blinked as he entered. The room was a lot smaller than it had appeared on the outside, though it was still big enough to accommodate the pair without hemming them against each other. Yukiteru perched on the small oaken table in the centre; the room's only visible piece of furniture. His irises panned the shelves, resting on each individual spine. The titles were inscribed in that same arcane code-language.

He peered over at Akise. The albino stared at the bookshelf opposite, humming thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, my Authorisation as a Regulator can only go so far. But if we play our cards right…" His fingers travelled along the bookcase, vaguely brushing the light dust that had collected on each volume. His hand abruptly stopped over a blue-bound tome. "We might _just_ be able to secure an advantage over Deus Ex Machina."

"What… what is this place, exactly?" Yukiteru murmured.

Akise glanced back at him. "The Akashic Records house all the data used to regulate this world. That includes the Regulators themselves of course. In various places scattered across the Records are the various pieces of the source codes of myself, Gasai-san and the other Regulators. The exception being Uryuu-san, as she started out just like you." Akise paused briefly as he turned his body fully around to face Yukiteru. "I don't know the details of what happened… they are bound under tight encryptions placed by Deus himself that even I can't break through. But it seemed she found out about the true nature of this place, much like you did. Either she had somehow managed to figure out what was going on by herself, or another Regulator had told her… Though I have a hunch Deus Ex Machina himself may have been involved. Either way, she managed to secure a deal with Deus granting her full Authorisation to use the Ability as a Regulator. But she changed her mind about it. I don't know what happened, but she's now running rogue." Akise gestured at the shelves surrounding him. "In any case, she was stripped of her status as a Regulator by Deus Ex Machina. But she managed to somehow break into here, this very room, to retrieve the codes she needed to use the Ability."

"The… Ability?" Yukiteru questioned.

Akise smiled. "You noticed earlier, didn't you? That I can manipulate the code governing this world at will. That is what is known as the Ability. All Regulators have it inbuilt into their source codes. It enables us to do things in this world that would be impossible in reality. Like defying gravity, regenerating wounds, et cetera… You've seen it used before, haven't you?"

Yukiteru nodded, immediately remembering Yuno's impossible upward bungee jump. The arm that had been grabbed then still twinged at the memory.

"Well, all the data governing the Ability can be accessed here, provided you have the correct Authorisation." Akise smoothed his fingers along the cobalt spine of the book before him. "Everything is here. Who is eligible to use the Ability, what it actually enables you to do, what aspects of the Ability can be used by certain individuals…" His pale hand reached up towards the books on the shelf above. "Only Deus Ex Machina has complete control over all the data here. However, most of it is still able to be accessed by any Regulator – ah!"

Akise's arm abruptly recoiled from a battered paperback on the top shelf, its rouged cover fading into rose. The albino's face tore in a wince. Yukiteru's eyes widened as he noticed that Akise's hand was _glowing_ – his fingers and palm made translucent, exposing the esoteric cyber-mechanism within himself. Akise's inner circuitry and code was represented by a multitude of dynamic electric-blue pixel structures; flowing, conjoining, unravelling and rejoining. The movement was computerised, cybertechnical, but it was also indisputably, undeniably, alive.

Yukiteru only caught a brief glimpse of this phenomenon before Akise's hand phased back into its usual interface. The expression the albino directed towards the noirette was halfway between a grimace and a grin. "Seems the top shelf is out of bounds, now." He sighed. "Deus has been closing in on us. Fortunately he has too much on his hands to block absolutely everything from us. Putting the necessary encryptions in place would take time that he does not have." Akise exhaled deeply before using both hands to shift the blue tome from its place on the shelf to land with an echoing _slam_ on the table. "So we'll use what we've got."

Yukiteru's brow furrowed. The situation was profoundly confusing, and he was having a difficult time keeping up. "W-wait, Akise-kun. You… you've already got the Ability, right? And… if it hasn't been blocked by anything, um, well… why exactly are we here?"

Akise met his eyes once again and smiled, almost proudly. "I predicted that would be your next question." His gaze transitioned back to the book. "The thing is, Yukiteru-kun… Having the Ability may _seem_ like I can do absolutely anything within the bounds of this world. But it has its limits. Ultimately, it's controlled by Deus. So, our one trump card is to use something that even Deus himself can't control. Something he put in here, something that he knowingly pushed out of his reach. But why…" Akise stared down at the tome he held, his gaze seemingly lost in its marine cover. "Why would he ever do such a thing? Why would he even allow it to become possible?"

Silvery cascades of hair shifted as Akise shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, Yukiteru-kun. Now is not the time for doubts. This is our _only_ chance to gain any kind of advantage over this situation…"

He took a visibly deep breath and opened the book.

Yukiteru watched silently as Akise leafed through the pages of the tome. His eyes moved too quickly to comprehend, scanning through full pages in nanoseconds. He had almost finished the volume by the time he held out his hand and stated simply, "Yukiteru-kun, please give me your phone."

The noirette's hesitation was so slight it was barely there at all. He obliged, yielding the silicon-and-plastic gadget that he viewed almost as his lifeline over to Akise. He felt no regret at the handover, though the experience felt rather odd to Yukiteru; it was as though Akise had extracted some inner part of him and was softly probing its abstract form, trying to understand it.

The pages of the book and the screen of Yukiteru's phone pulsated in unison. A synchronised beat of transferring code. The letters of an unconventional algorithm phased in and out of visibility as they travelled from phone to book, book to phone. The process was rapidly completed.

"Here, Yukiteru-kun." Said noirette accepted the phone back from Akise. The machine felt warm in his hands. It vibrated and glowed with digital energy.

"Read what's on the screen," Akise prompted.

Yukiteru did so. At first he saw nothing but incomprehensible gibberish. Columns of the same aberrant code, over and over. But the machine gradually decrypted each line, little by little, until the familiar display of Yukiteru's phone diary appeared. The log was empty.

Or at least, it was for about two seconds.

The blue-eyed boy almost dropped his phone in shock as the screen suddenly sparked, dissolving into static. When the display reappeared, a single entry had written itself:

 ** _XX:XX X.M. [Akashic Records]_** _There's a strange sound approaching across the walkway outside. Akise's going to check on it._

"What… what is this?!" Yukiteru gasped.

"It's an… upgrade to your phone diary," Akise explained, though even he seemed a little unsure of his words. "Deus never explicitly told me that this algorithm actually existed, though he implied it once, back before I went rogue. It was almost… Almost as if he was testing me…"

"But what _is_ it?" Yukiteru asked breathlessly. He did not avert his gaze from his phone's display.

Before Akise could answer, an odd noise, almost like the etching of nails against metal, a smooth scratching, could be heard from outside. The albino stiffened.

"I hope that's not who I think it is…" Akise moved towards the corridor.

"W-wait, Akise-kun!" Yukiteru blurted, stumbling towards said albino. "You haven't –"

He was cut off by yet another round of odd static noise. Cerulean eyes consulted the phone's screen.

Sure enough, a new diary entry had fabricated itself in place of the old. This one said:

 ** _XX:XX X.M. [Akashic Records]_** _Gasai Yuno appears, blocking our exit. We're trapped in the alcove. What do we do?_

Yukiteru felt the panic communicated in the last sentence as though the event had already happened. It clearly struck a chord within Akise too. His eyes were wider than physically possible.

"Let's go," he stated brusquely, grasping and pulling Yukiteru's wrist. The boy yelped in response but did not otherwise protest. "We've spent too long here! I'm sorry, Yukiteru-kun, but I might have to explain as we…"

The scratching escalated in volume and intensity. Akise bolted at a terrifying speed, tearing Yukiteru along with him. He moved through the incomprehensible matrix of the Akashic Records faster than Yukiteru could perceive, and yet his speech remained at the same tempo as usual.

"Even I'm not fully sure what it is. But it's a device that operates using similar parameters to the Akashic Records itself. It analyses and categorises incoming information fed from the Records, and uses this information to predict the most likely outcome according to changes in the code." Akise swerved a dizzying corner. "In simple terms, it predicts the future with an error margin of about zero-point-zero-zero-one per cent. What you hold in your hands, Yukiteru-kun, is the only object in this world capable of using Deus's creation: the Random Future Diary."

"…Random Future Diary?" Yukiteru felt like he might throw up.

"It's not perfect. But if oracles truly exist, it's the closest thing there is."

The scratching did not relent. Yukiteru's phone buzzed with static again, but he had no time to check the latest prophetic bulletin. Akise swerved again, but this time, Yukiteru did not swerve with him.

He saw nothing move, but suddenly felt as though he was being forcibly pulled from Akise's grasp. The invisible force yanked him first out of the albino's grip and then wholly out of his reach. Akise turned, too late, his red eyes filling with horror.

"Yukiteru-kun –"

Darkness enclosed around Yukiteru with a _snap_ , leaving the noirette with nothing but the memory of Akise's distraught expression.


	5. Chapter 5: Encoded Murmurs

**Okay! A quick few words before the chapter starts! Sorry if I sound a tad depraved here, as it's 1:30 A.M. currently and I want my bed. Ah, the sacrifices I have to make to reach fanfiction deadlines...**

 **But hey, at least I did manage to actually reach a deadline for once! I've also kept to pretty much all the promises made in the last chapter; there's a new character introduction in this chapter, plus a portion from Akise's point of view! I'd love to know how I did with the characterisations. As always, any constructive criticism would be great!**

 **And now to the bad news... *sighs* Sorry, but not every update can be 100% happy. It rarely is with me. Anyway, I'm just going to warn you guys that there is unlikely to be another update until January, because I'm going to be too busy to think about much else other than mock exams until the Christmas holidays start. And over Christmas, I'll be working on something else that should hopefully soon be uploaded onto here... Well, nothing is definite, but still.**

 **In that case, see ya in the New Year!~**

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Encoded Murmurs**

"Hi, hi, Amano Yukiteru!"

The exceedingly cheerful voice seemed out of context with the situation. As Yukiteru hung, suspended in the darkness from restraints that he could not see, the upbeat greeting echoed in every dimension around him. He peered into the surrounding tenebrosity, only to glean nothing; but he could definitely feel a presence _somewhere_. Anxiety filled his head and veins, but he knew for certain that the voice had not belonged to Yuno. Nor did it bear any resemblance to Uryuu Minene. No, it was someone else, most definitely.

But whom? _Another Regulator, I suppose,_ Yukiteru reasoned. That much was obvious. But where did their loyalties lie? Having whisked him away from both Akise and Yuno, they clearly weren't trying to help out either of _them_. They were, it seemed, working alone. _So what is it that they want from me?_

Yukiteru shivered in the clammy darkness. He started suddenly as his phone dairy let fire another burst of static. He glanced around wildly, but he could not catch a glimpse of the prescient device.

A giggle perpetuated the area. "So that's what the future looks like, huh… Guess we'd better hurry it up a little!"

There was a sudden _snap_ , almost akin to the clicking of fingers. And with it the darkness blocking Yukiteru's eyesight was removed, his limbs freed. He almost staggered as a bombardment of visual information suddenly assaulted him, pouncing out of what was previously pitch-black nothing.

He was on a balcony; presumably somewhere very high up, if the horizon-wide view spread out like an esoteric tapestry below him was any indication. Pillars of pearlescent marble surrounded him. The landscape was intricate, wondrous, and ultimately impossible; strange feathered incarnations, water forming airborne tunnels, mountains and glaciers and lava fields and forests and chasms and stars and sunlight and moons and planets and an entire fucking galaxy of spontaneous fantastical weirdness, dynamic and distorted as though caught in a mad quantum whirlpool of science-fiction.

Yukiteru glanced almost immediately away from the scene, as though the sheer amount of intricacy hurt his eyes. The scene was much like a profoundly detailed Surrealist painting, only obscure to such an extent that it could not be properly comprehended by human eyes.

So Yukiteru instead turned to the figure beside him. It was still rather odd, but compared to the landscape – or more aptly, the universe – before him, it was almost overwhelmingly quotidian.

The figure stood, perfectly balanced, atop the balcony. The first thing Yukiteru noticed was how comically _tiny_ she, or it, or whatever it happened to be, was. The large, bright violet eyes, the long lavender hair, the disproportionately large white boots, and the mauve arrow-tipped tail – but most especially the downright _chibi_ size – all caused Yukiteru to immediately liken the creature to a character out of a magical girl manga.

Or perhaps that assumption was purely due to the fact that the creature held a copy of the first volume of _Puella Magi Madoka Magica_. Perhaps.

Something flashed in the creature's free hand; Yukiteru's phone. "Here!" the creature proclaimed cheerily, proffering the device. "You dropped this, Amano-kun!"

Yukiteru accepted the phone warily, painfully aware of what had happened the last time he had dropped his phone in the vicinity of a Regulator.

The noirette felt as though he could sense some sort of potency emanating from the amethyst-eyed creature; however, hers, at the very least, did not appear to be as raw and impulsive as Yuno's.

"Wh-"

Before he could even complete the syllable, much less the question, the little creature jovially interrupted. "I'm Mur Mur! And it's great to meet you finally, Amano Yukiteru!" She chuckled. "Of course I've kept an eye on you for a long while, at Deus's behest, but he said never to make direct contact, so…" Mur Mur folded her arms in indignation and appeared to pout. "He's such a killjoy, honestly. But y'know, that's beside the point. That's not what I brought you in here to talk about."

"Wh-what is this place?" Cobalt eyes panned the marblesque structure.

The lavender-haired Regulator shrugged in response. "Well…" She smirked. "It's a portable pocket-dimension. We Regulators have to ability to construct pocket-dimensions, or fabricated worlds that exist outside the main system interface… In other words, separate from the place you know as Sakurami City. Like that place where you met Akise, with the meadow. _That_ was a pocket-dimension. But while an ordinary pocket dimension cannot be moved through the system, this one is a little… different. It's programmed so that it doesn't directly interfere with the code of the dimension around it, so I can take it anywhere. And I can recode it to suit my needs anytime I like! Pretty awesome, right? Plus, only _I_ have jurisdiction in here." She waggled a chubby finger. "Even other Regulators can't touch the code of this place. Well, I mean, Deus _can_ … but I have my own ways of getting around that."

Yukiteru blinked, unsure of what to think of Mur Mur's taste in fabricated worlds. "So… You can take it anywhere… literally, anywhere?"

"That's right!" Mur Mur's smirk widened. "Technically, us standing here… well, we're still in the Akashic Records. Yet we're also –" she proclaimed, sweeping her arms around the scene theatrically "-in Fantasia!" She burst suddenly into peals of near-hysteric laughter. "It's a place where anything can happen! Quite literally. And _cyber code_ makes it all possible! Seriously! It's amazing what you can do with just a few digits, no?"

Mur Mur tiptoed across the balcony somewhat erratically, her body teetering with each step. She continued without pause, leaving Yukiteru to walk after her.

"Y'know, I really, really admired Deus for constructing this machine. In fact, to tell you the truth, I still do! It's a wondrous piece of technology, truly. I was the first Regulator, see. Here from the very beginning. So I witnessed Deus building it all up, byte by byte. And the interface isn't just something that software can enjoy… well, you would know, wouldn't you, Amano-kun?" She stopped suddenly and settled her gleaming purple orbs right on Yukiteru's own. "This experiment tests the compatibility of Deus's creation with humans. And, oh boy, is it compatible! You've lived in here for years. Three whole years. Coming up to another four, in fact. And you're nothing but a hale and hearty human being, aren't you?"

Yukiteru simply stared at her. Mur Mur seemed absolutely full of praise for Deus, but he could tell that there was some sort of contradiction here. Could she be a dissident Regulator, just like Akise and Uryuu?

"But… what?" he asked hesitantly.

"But what? Well, what can I say?" Mur Mur shook her head and wafted her hand dismissively. "It's not my place to tell you everything that's so fundamentally flawed with Deus's experiment. Heck, his plan is far, far, _far_ wider than you think it is… It's not just about the Subjects anymore. You couldn't even _begin_ to guess what he's planning, and I mean that quite literally. You can pursue it if you want to, but I personally can't give you that information. And by that I mean that I _physically_ can't tell you. It's not a question of whether I want to or not."

"W-why can't you?"

Mur Mur sat down heavily on the balcony ledge. She learned in eagerly, brandishing her manga, as though about to communicate some sort of scandalous gossip or perception-breaking theory to Yukiteru. "See, this is the thing, Amano-kun. Anything – that is, any data in the form of code – stored in this system, well… You can put a great many security encryptions on it, but it's never totally foolproof. That means you run the risk of the data being accessed by anyone who uses the system. That could be you, me, Uryuu-san, anyone! If you really want to keep a secret," she murmured, leaning in ever closer, "and I mean _really_ really, then you should store that information outside the system altogether." Mur Mur paused, leaning back, before emitting a deep sigh. "It's… frustrating. Way back when, before us Regulators all started to fall out with each other, I was allowed to see Deus's plans for myself. Just once, I was allowed to travel out of the main system. But I can't remember the details themselves. You see, most of the data was blocked from returning to my internal drive. Instead, I was merely left with the sensations I felt, my own thoughts… or at least those that had nothing to do with the data itself. I wasn't memory-wiped," she chuckled, "I just was never allowed to even store that memory in the first place."

Yukiteru frowned anxiously. The whole idea was a lot to take in – indeed, Mur Mur's explanation resembled cryptic rambling psychobabble more than anything else.

The little Regulator seemed to sense the blue-eyed Subject's confusion. "Oh, I can only imagine what it must be like for you, living so blissfully ignorant for so long. But I'm sure that Akise-san can help with that. Do you remember the text you received just before Gasai-san and Uryuu-san had their fight?"

The noirette blinked. If truth be told, he had forgotten about it completely. That oddball string of letters and numbers… a novel code, perhaps? He had simply dismissed it as being yet another enciphered warning from Akise, but if Mur Mur was mentioning it now…

"I have absolutely no idea what it says, so don't ask me about it. If you ever find a way to escape the system completely, I think it may just be your trump card. It's a tiny bit of residual code from Deus's super-secret external drive that I found one day, floating about in the darkest recesses of the Akashic Records. Dunno why it was there of all places, but nothing is _completely_ resistant to leakage, after all!" Her giggle this time was _very slightly_ triumphant. "But still, I can't actually store it. Neither can Akise. Only you can. Your mind isn't governed by the same rules as ours."

At that, she sat backwards and crossed one leg over the other, decidedly relaxed. She opened her manga onto a seemingly random page.

"You'll understand this soon, Amano-kun. It's not that Deus is flawless. It's just that he's extremely good at hiding his flaws."

Before Yukiteru could respond to that, Mur Mur's fingers clicked with finality, and he dissolved once again into the dark trans-dimensional membrane. The sound of static accompanied his journey.

* * *

 **[Akashic Records]**

The spherical behemoth that had absorbed Yukiteru loomed before Akise. It somehow seemed larger than when he had last encountered it; it all but filled his field of vision. It appeared as a metallic globe ridged with nooks and crevices, but Akise knew that that was merely an attempt by the interface to accommodate the portable data-anomaly.

Even Akise was unsure of how it worked. He did not bother trying to override the security encryptions. He knew before ever attempting it that the world inside was protected by Supreme Administration. It would only be natural for Mur Mur, the original Regulator and Deus's closest associate, to be granted such abilities, after all.

That sort of logical reasoning was completely lost on Yuno, however. The rose-haired Regulator was practically throwing herself at Mur Mur's sphere, slamming fists, feet, and any other part of her body in a fruitless attempt to make a dent show up on the ferrous orb. She conjured all types of ostentatious weaponry from the code around her: two katana, an axe, a chainsaw, a bazooka and finally a flamethrower. Each weapon shattered against the relentless surface of Mur Mur's pocket-dimension.

"MUR MUR!" she howled. "If you don't come out with Amano-kun RIGHT THIS INSTANT I'm going to TEAR YOU APART!" All other speech was lost in the cacophony of the unintelligible paroxysm that followed.

Akise watched her from the opposite end of the walkway. He was aware that he probably appeared much calmer than he felt. His virtual mind was full of relentless questions; though that wasn't exactly anything new. He had always regarded Mur Mur as a mystery, and a very intriguing one at that.

Although he had tried many times, through many different methods, to shed some light on the original Regulator's long-kept obscurity, she remained just as inscrutable as Deus. Perhaps even _more_ inscrutable than Deus. There were few concrete facts that he could truly state with confidence about Mur Mur, though he had a hunch that there was more to her true allegiance than she was really letting on.

The albino Regulator sighed deeply. "Gasai-san, you do realise that it's only possible for Deus to hack into those encryptions, right?"

It was a pathetic attempt at getting her to calm down, and Akise knew it before he even said it.

Magenta eyes brimming with balefulness turned on him. "Well then, why _doesn't_ he?" Yuno growled.

Akise blinked, realising that he did not know the answer to that question. Surely Deus would have been curious as to what was going on within that globe. So why hadn't he attempted to crack it open yet?

As he turned back towards the sphere, its facets glinting arcanely in the alternate lighting, the realisation dawned on him.

 _He's not doing it because something's_ preventing _him from doing so…_

Cinnabar eyes widened in recognition of the implications that that statement held. _Does this seriously mean that Mur Mur can bar Deus from entering indefinitely? How is she doing that? What secrets does she possibly know?_

Akise wanted nothing more than to delve right then and there into the capricious and surreal world of Mur Mur's creation. He knew it would be impossible to navigate, and he knew that any chance of finding Yukiteru would be slim. But he desperately wanted answers; so desperately, in fact, that emotion was beginning to interfere with his typical cool logic.

The red-eyed Regulator breathed out deeply in an effort to calm his digital heartbeat. _There's nothing I can do,_ he thought regrettably. Even after considering everything that he had at his disposal; the extent of his abilities, the billions of possibilities he could conjure from the air around him – he could still conclude that everything would ram into a steel wall. Literally as well as metaphorically.

Ultimately, everything was down to Mur Mur. Despite being her fellow Regulators, Akise and Yuno were as powerless in this situation as any Subject.

Yuno was still directing an eyeful of malice at the albino. "You. It's _your_ fault that Amano-kun was _kidnapped_ by that she-demon. _Yours."_

 _Oh, I can tell where this is going…_ Gasai Yuno was possibly one of the most predictable Regulators Akise had encountered. That was not to say that she was necessarily the most predictable of all. But it was easy to hazard a guess with Yuno. After all, she only seemed to be ever motivated by one thing.

"What makes you say that?" Akise inquired evenly. He threw in a genial smile for good measure.

Yuno took the bait and responded to the provocation. She advanced, a kitchen knife materialising in her hand out of lines of code. "You," she began, dangerously slowly, threateningly quiet. "You, running around with him. Filling his head with lies. Teaching – no, _grooming_ him into becoming a rogue, just like you. I don't know why Deus Ex Machina hasn't removed the Ability from you yet. You're nothing but a cowardly _traitor."_ She practically spat the last word out.

Akise shrugged. "I don't know either, now that you mention it. Well, since Uryuu-san got her Ability back, I suppose he knows that it would be impossible to stop me from retrieving it any time I wished. Or perhaps –"

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Yuno interrupted. The knife elongated in her hands, serrations spiking from the blade. A metallic rose growing, unfurling, sporting steel thorns. She approached, her voice wheezy with passion as she spoke. "You took… my Amano-kun… away from me… And for that…" She paused, stopping a mere three feet from Akise. "You will die."

The slash came so quickly that Akise did not even see it. Fortunately, he had predicted it. The blade harmlessly clanged off the rectangular shield that Akise now held in his hands. Yuno growled, feinted, slashed. Akise blocked again and jumped backwards whilst simultaneously decrypting and recrypting his surroundings into a glinting sabre almost a metre long. He parried Yuno's next thrust. Her knife was now so large that it was more worthy of being called a sword.

"Hey, you two, cut it out!"

The sudden familiarity of the voice caused both combatants to twist towards its source. Mur Mur was sitting atop her mystery dome, kicking her legs playfully in the air like an excited child. An open manga sat in her lap.

"YOU!" An enraged Yuno wasted no time in transforming her weapon into a projectile. Mur Mur easily evaded the hurtling knife by leaning to the side, and the blade spun pathetically into the obscure infiniteness beyond the walkway.

"How great it is to see you two again!" Mur Mur was all smiles. "Ah, Akise-san. I remember the time when you got lost in my Labyrinth of Wonder. And Gasai-san, I remember the times when you used to take manga recommendations from me. Good times, weren't they?" The little Regulator's grin faded very suddenly. "But what happened? What drove us apart? What has come between us? We used to be one big happy family, right? Brothers and sisters, who all revered Deus as their father… And now…" Mur Mur looked as though she were about to spill forth genuine tears.

"Spare me the sentimental crap!" snarled Yuno. "Why did you kidnap Amano-kun?"

Mur Mur appeared surprised. "Kidnapped? I never! I'm simply acting on Deus's orders. He wanted me to take Amano Yukiteru someplace safe where I could brief him before he's introduced. Also…" She chuckled slightly nervously. "He was a bit concerned about you. You have a tendency to get a bit rough and tumble… don't you, Gasai-san? Seeing as Amano-kun is a Subject, it's best if we don't…. go down that route. Ensure his safety and comfort. You understand, don't you, Gasai-san?"

"You witch," Yuno growled in response.

"Now now," Mur Mur cut in before Yuno could say any more. "We're friends, aren't we? We're on the same side, for Deus's sake! Tell you what, I'll give you Amano-kun now. I trust you to protect him as you escort him to Deus. But what I did… Well, it was necessary. Deus didn't tell you about it because he knew you'd resist it. Ask him and you'll understand." Her amethystine gaze panned over to Akise. "And as for you… Deus has told me that he's willing to give you a second chance. Why don't you two try to become friends again? All this falling out over nothing business… it's silly!" She laughed, the sound only slightly tinged with hysteria. And… Akise was almost certain that he had imagined it, but… had Mur Mur _winked_ at him in that instance?

The original Regulator snapped her fingers, the percussion reverberating around the entirety of the Akashic Records. Mur Mur and her portable globe phased out of being almost as abruptly as she had arrived.

Simultaneously, the air rippled next to Yuno, reconfiguring itself to accommodate the slumping, black-haired figure that had suddenly appeared there.

"Amano-kun!" Yuno cried in ecstasy as she rushed forward, catching the noirette as he toppled over. Her arms constricted him tightly.

"Wha…" Yukiteru mumbled, opening bleary eyes which soon widened in terror as he became aware of what was going on. "Y-Yuno…?!"

"It's okay, Amano-kun. I won't let any harm come to you."

Yukiteru's eyes scrambled wildly until they came to rest on Akise. "A-Akise! H-help me!"

Akise was already on the move. Yukiteru struggled against Yuno's grip, only managing to stretch out his hand for a fraction of a second; but that was all Akise needed.

Akise's fingers were micrometres away from the skin of Yukiteru's palm. But they never touched.

Yuno hollered something incomprehensible in that same instant, simultaneous anger and triumph flashing in her eyes before she and Yukiteru disappeared into a tornado of swirling digits. Akise's hand closed over greenish symbols.

He stepped back, absolutely statue-still for a single moment, before crumpling to the floor under the weight of despair.

"Yukiteru-kun…"

He had almost no hope of getting him back now. He knew exactly where Yuno had taken him: Causality Cathedral. Deus Ex Machina's domain. Strictly prohibited to all but those who had received direct authorisation from Deus.

 _If it was anywhere else I could probably find some way to override security and get in. But with Causality Cathedral? I wouldn't even be able to get anywhere near it without risking my avatar being ripped apart… and I would be lucky if I lost only that much._

Akise knelt on the walkway as the data-directing mechanism of the Akashic Records spiralled around him. He closed his eyes.

 _I'm sorry… Yukiteru-kun._

"Akise-san?"

Said Regulator shot bolt upright. Despite his response, he was immediately sceptical. _This has got to be some kind of cruel joke._ As he spun round to face Yukiteru, he supressed any premature feelings of hope with that thought.

The black-haired Subject glanced warily around. He checked his phone dairy, peering at it closely as though scrutinising it. "Wh-where's Gasai-san?" His voice was a watery mixture of apprehension and confusion.

"Gone," Akise answered. "And… so were you." His brow furrowed. "Mur Mur handed you over to Gasai… so… why are you still here?"

"Huh?" Yukiteru peered again at his Random Future Diary. "Oh… I think I see it now..."

The black-haired boy approached Akise. The Regulator remained cautious. Yukiteru stopped about two feet away from him, and held up his phone diary so that Akise could easily read the entries.

 ** _XX:XX X.M. [Akashic Records]_** _Akise and Gasai are fighting. It looks intense._

 ** _XX:XX X.M. [Akashic Records]_** _Mur Mur hands the duplicate Yukiteru over to Gasai. She doesn't seem fooled. They leave for Causality Cathedral together._

Akise frowned. "Duplicate… Yukiteru…?" _What is Mur Mur playing at? She couldn't possibly… no, there was no way she would've been able to fool Gasai like that. You can't duplicate Subjects unless…_ His train of thought abruptly stopped.

Yukiteru nodded. "Yeah… I think that was Mur Mur's plan all along. She was… she was covering for me, I think." He scratched the back of his head. "She told me some… strange things…"

"Wait just a moment, Yukiteru-kun. Hold out your hand," Akise commanded gently.

"O-okay." Yukiteru obliged.

The snow-haired Regulator gripped his wrist and felt for the Subject's pulse. Admittedly it did feel very real, very convincing. But a Subject's heartbeat could not be replicated. It was based solely on external data drawn from Yukiteru's physical body; whereas the heartbeat of an ornament was purely for show and fabricated from internal data. Akise felt with one touch that this was not the case. In an instant, he had traced the data back to its source: Yukiteru's own cardiac muscle.

Akise smiled, comfortable in knowing that this was indeed the real Amano Yukiteru. He met the other boy's wide cobalt irises. They were as they usually were; steeped in layers of intrigue, wonder, and anxiety. To Akise, they seemed the most beautiful part of Yukiteru. They told no lies.

"Sorry, Yukiteru-kun. I just had to check." He almost reluctantly let go of Yukiteru's hand.

"It's… okay." Yukiteru glanced around the Akashic Records again in anticipation.

"Let's get out of here," Akise sighed, agreeing with Yukiteru's silent request. "I'm sorry that I can only give you temporary safety, but all Mur Mur did was buy us some time. Gasai-san will eventually discover that her Yukiteru is a fake. I do know a place, however, where hopefully she will check last. We can talk there."

Yukiteru suddenly clung to Akise, threading his arms around the other's back. The Regulator blinked in surprise.

"I… I don't want to be separated from you," Yukiteru murmured.

Akise's smile broadened. He wasn't quite sure if the noirette viewed their relationship as platonic or not, and if he was honest, he didn't really mind. It was not necessary for his love to be requited.

 _All that matters… is making sure he gets out of here._

With that, the pair stepped back into the digital ether.


	6. Chapter 6: The Ubiquitous Facade

**What is updating. What is January.**

 **Yeah... I really am sorry about that. Once again, I have no real excuse for how incredibly late this late update is, but still. I very much hope you enjoy it! Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated.**

 **I will hopefully be seeing you again in March (emphasis on "hopefully"), and if I don't, feel free to send me as many angry PMs as you wish. It might just help motivate me.**

* * *

 **Chapter Six: The Ubiquitous Facade**

 **[Sakurami City Amusement Park]**

"S-so… this is the last place Gasai-san will ever check, you think?"

Yukiteru's soft voice wavered with unease. His lips still trembled from his previous ordeal, forming shaky whispers. He met the scarlet gaze of Akise Aru, and was somewhat assured by the warm confidence in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Yukiteru-kun. I calculated this carefully."

Yukiteru turned back once again to the scene he had materialised into. The horizon was dominated by a gigantic Ferris wheel, all neon arms of illumination blazing against the early evening sky. The rattling tracks of rollercoasters and the roofs of various booths and buildings surrounded the wheel, forming a labyrinth of entertainment through which children zealously ran, young couples walked hand-in-hand and tired-looking adults plodded after their sons and daughters, forking over two thousand yen at ticket booths with silent reluctance.

The black-haired teen chuckled lightly. "It's okay, Akise-kun. I trust you. It's just... a little unexpected, I guess."

Akise laughed. "I suppose you're right. But believe me, Yukiteru-kun, this place is actually a lot less conspicuous than it seems."

Yukiteru believed him. After all, Akise had knowledge of the hidden mechanisms of this world; those ominous invisible strings that the noirette was only just starting to perceive.

It did feel strange, being back in what he had previously thought was the real world. It felt like it always had done. The light springtime breeze, the darkening blue tint of the sky; everything felt familiar. Normal.

And yet…

Yukiteru was now aware. He was aware that every breath he inhaled, every step he took, every sensation he felt, was merely the processed product of thousands upon thousands of lines of intricate code. Yes, everything _was_ the same, but simultaneously… it all seemed hollow, now. Insubstantial. Virtual. Those children screaming on the rollercoasters, that woman sitting in the ticket booth – well, none of them mattered. None of them were real people. They were just… background details. Like NPCs in a video game.

"It's intriguing, isn't it?" Akise mused rather suddenly. "Just how much a person's beliefs affects their perception of the world around them."

Yukiteru blinked, staring slightly warily at the albino. Sure, he knew that the Regulator had an impressive set of powers… but did those powers really extend to telepathy?

"I can't read your thoughts, Yukiteru-kun." Akise spoke reassuringly. "Even though your thoughts are transmitted into the system, they're encrypted in such a way that I can't access them. And even if I could, I still wouldn't." He met the Subject's gaze. "Let's just say for now… that deduction is an important skill to have as a Regulator. It's a bit strange, actually… When I still worked for Deus, I would always carry out my role as though I were a detective. I was never sure why I did that, so I suppose it's just part of my core program."

Yukiteru nodded. The pair continued to stroll rather sedately through the amusement park. Akise appeared to be searching for an inconspicuous corner in which they could resume their conversation; Yukiteru, meanwhile, was periodically distracted by the tasteful aromas emanating from the nearby food stalls. It was only then that he realised just how hungry he was.

Akise caught onto the noirette's appetence almost as soon as Yukiteru himself did. "Don't think that simply because you live in a virtual world, nothing in that world matters. Although your body is supplied constantly with all the nutrition it needs, even in this world, hunger is a real state of mind. If you're hungry, then you should eat."

Yukiteru nodded and made to carry out Akise's advice, but paused as a sudden thought occurred to him. "Akise, do you ever eat?"

"I haven't ever, actually," Akise admitted. "I'm not programmed to have an innate hunger drive, so -"

"But… have you ever even considered it?"

Akise appeared to mull it over for a few seconds. "Well, now I have," he chuckled.

"I'll get one for you, then!" Yukiteru decided cheerfully as he sprinted off in the direction of the nearest stall.

Five minutes later, both teenagers were seated on a wooden picnic bench on a slight rise, overlooking the centre of the park. The place was emptying, slowly but surely, as dusk shrouded the sky and closing time approached. Thick streams of holidaymakers clogged the narrow spaces between the food stands.

Akise gingerly finished off the last remnants of his _yakitori_ stick, being sure to remove every last shred of chicken from the skewer. Upon completion, he placed the skewer on the table in front of him and stared at it contemplatively.

"Was it any good?" asked Yukiteru excitedly.

"It was… interesting…" Akise murmured.

"Good interesting or bad interesting?"

Akise looked at Yukiteru and smiled one of his serene smiles. "Good interesting, I think. It's just that I've never quite used my sense of taste in that way before… You see, Regulators are programmed with chemical senses, just so we can appear genuinely convincing to the Subjects. But we don't have much use for them, really. Things like food and the scent of a flower… well, to a Regulator, it's all a bit arbitrary."

"I… I see," Yukiteru muttered hesitantly.

"Still. Thank you, Yukiteru-kun." Akise proffered a thousand-yen note to the Subject.

"O-oh, it's alright," Yukiteru replied hastily, "I don't mind paying for you. Really."

"Alright then," Akise relented with a chuckle. He seemed somewhat flattered.

"Anyway," the albino continued, "tell me about Mur Mur."

Yukiteru sighed and resorted to fiddling with his _yakitori_ skewer as he spoke. "It was really… odd. Most of what she said was really cryptic…"

"Typical Mur Mur," Akise agreed.

"She said something about Deus storing all the secrets of his experiment outside the system…"

"Well, that would make sense. I had always had an idea that that was the case."

"…and she also mentioned this text that I received a while ago." Yukiteru faced Akise. "You know when you told me that you had been sending me encoded warnings about Deus Ex Machina? Well, I thought that this text was one of them, but apparently it isn't…" He scrolled through the texts on his phone until he found the ominously obscure string of nonsense letters and numbers. He held the screen up so that Akise could get a clear view. "Mur Mur said that if we break this code, we'll be able to escape from this world. But only if we can find a way out first. I think that's what she said…"

Akise frowned intensely at the encoded message. "I've never seen a cipher like this. Still, it doesn't look as if it'll be too hard to crack –"

"She also said something about Regulators not being able to store the message… she said only I could."

Akise hummed to himself. "Ah. I see. It's blacklisted information, of course. That would mean that only you could understand the decoded message… but still. I think I know a way in which this could work…"

"How?" Yukiteru inquired.

But he never got his answer.

At that time, Yukiteru's phone buzzed with static. The sound ripped through the air so suddenly that the Subject jumped, causing the small slab of silicon to slip onto the floor. After scrambling to retrieve the device, he gripped it tightly and brought the display up to eye level.

 ** _5:42 P.M. [Sakurami Amusement Park]_** _There's a little boy wandering around on his own. Is he lost?_

The entry appeared clearly on the screen for less than a second before unravelling into incomprehensible static. A fraction of a moment later a new entry appeared just under the previous one:

 ** _5:50 P.M. [Sakurami Amusement Park]_** _This is it. I'm going to_

The entry cut off mid-sentence, as though the future had suddenly run into a wall of blank, impenetrable pixels. A temporal dead end.

Yukiteru was chilled by the thought. What did that unfinished entry mean? He was going to… what, exactly? Would he be captured and separated from his phone? Would his phone, along with its innate prescience, be destroyed? Or would he, as the original author of the phone diary… die?

 _"_ _And you know what happens to Subjects that die in this world, don't you?"_

Through all the bizarre hazy memories of his last encounter with Uryuu Minene, that single sentence was the one thing the noirette could recall clearly. He'd watched enough video game-based anime to hazard a guess at what she had meant, but sincerely didn't wish to find out if that was indeed the true meaning behind her words.

His hold on the phone became shaky as he noticed the time readout in the top left-hand corner of his phone display: 5:38 P.M. That meant that he had a mere twelve minutes until whatever was going to happen, happened.

Akise clearly sensed the potential morbidity of the situation. In a tone of wary severity, he asked, "Yukiteru-kun, what does it say?"

"I-It says…" he began uncertainly, but then paused. What _was_ the diary telling him? It was being strangely vague, as though it had decided to deliberately withhold information from him. All the previous entries had been very clear-cut; it had been easy to discern exactly what was going to happen. But now it was more like a puzzle. It was obscure and almost poetic, like one of the clues to a cryptic crossword. It raised more questions than it gave answers.

"Just… just look at it," Yukiteru continued, holding the phone towards Akise again.

A moment later, Akise was on his feet. His eyes had widened into bright circles of scarlet, but the rest of his facial features were tightly clenched, rigid.

"It's… _him._ " Akise pronounced the word in a harsh and vehement syllable of pure hatred. The tone was such a departure from the Regulator's usual gentle demeanour that Yukiteru blinked.

Before the noirette could even think to ask what Akise could have possibly read in those two obscure lines, he gripped Yukiteru's hand and announced, "We're leaving."

Yukiteru prepared himself for the (now increasingly familiar) sensation of falling into an infinite dimension of rapidly fluctuating lines of code; but this time, something else happened. Something managed to, seemingly, wedge itself into whatever teleporting mechanism it was that Akise used.

The algorithm broke all around them. Digits smashed together and disintegrated. Information battled itself. Akise dissolved into the darkness, the hand that gripped Yukiteru suddenly ceasing to exist.

Yukiteru himself was wrenched roughly backwards – or at least that was what it felt like – until the darkness around him warped back into wooden picnic tables and brightly lit fairground rides.

Yukiteru realised that he was lying sprawled on the floor, and hastily picked himself back up. Akise was nowhere to be seen.

His heart pounded out a rapid, monotone rhythm of unequivocal apprehension. There was something about this situation that bothered him even more than Akise's inexplicable disappearance…

Why hadn't the diary notified him that this was going to happen? Surely it was an important enough detail.

Just to be certain, Yukiteru glanced once again at the display. Nothing had changed; there were no new entries, just those two unnervingly vague lines. It was almost as if the dairy had gone on strike and was adamantly refusing to predict the future any further.

The time now read as 5:41 P.M. Just nine more minutes until who-knows-what happened.

And just a few seconds until the diary's first prediction came to pass.

Yukiteru scanned the area. Sure enough, a little figure soon revealed itself in the distance, waddling amongst the picnic tables somewhat aimlessly. As it neared the point where Yukiteru stood, he could discern that it was a boy of about five, with short orange-coloured hair tucked beneath a green-and-white cap. His hands were obscured by what appeared to be sock puppets. As he meandered around, he paused at various intervals to gaze happily and with interest at everything that surrounded him; at one point he crouched down to peer at an ant colony that scuttled in and out of a gap between the paving stones. Pretty typical for a five year old; except, of course, the startling lack of any parents or older siblings.

Clearly the little boy was of some significance, otherwise, Yukiteru figured, the diary wouldn't have mentioned him. Even though his previous diary had consisted of some pretty inane entries, it seemed that this one wasn't the same. This kid couldn't be an ornament. But was this little kid really a Regulator? If so, why did he appear to be ignoring Yukiteru? What benefit would that possibly give him? It made no sense.

 _Or maybe… maybe he's a Subject, like me._

In that case, then _of course_ he would be acting like any other five-year-old. After all, for all he knew, he _was_ just an ordinary five-year-old, blissfully unaware of the unsettling reality of the world around him.

Yukiteru approached him cautiously. He stopped halfway, frowning.

 _Why am I so apprehensive about a little kid…?_

Before he could begin trying to answer that, a voice, as sudden as it was high-pitched, piped up.

"Hello there, mister!"

Yukiteru met with a pair of large, jade-green eyes, and staggered, somewhat surprised.

 _Did… did this kid's parents really never teach him about not talking to strangers?_

He managed to compose himself enough to answer. "Er… h-hello," he muttered hesitantly. "Where… um… where are your parents?"

Yukiteru internally sighed. As an only child, he had never really been an expert at talking to kids.

The boy's face suddenly fell from its previous jubilant smile. "I don't know. They told me they'd take me on the rollercoasters so they told me to wait here while they got the tickets. But they haven't come back."

He looked so forlorn that Yukiteru had no choice but to feel sympathy from him. What kind of parents left their child alone like this? It sounded like no less than outright abandonment.

The kid then looked at him directly through emerald irises that demanded confirmation. "Do you… think they're going to come back at all?"

Yukiteru's mouth twisted awkwardly as he innately stepped back. He couldn't possibly tell him that they weren't; the last thing he needed right now was a bawling child on his hands. But he couldn't lead him into disappointment by saying yes, either. "I-I-I don't know," he mumbled feebly. "I'm… I'm sorry… um…"

"Houjou Reisuke!" the green-eyed boy filled in for him, a slightly wider-than-is-typically-considered-sane smile touching his lips for a few brief seconds. He then turned away from Yukiteru before spreading his arms out and leaning backwards in an odd gesture that made him seem as though he were attempting to address the sky.

"It's okay. I don't really need my parents anyway. After all, I'm super elite!" He practically cackled after that last statement.

This behaviour immediately set Yukiteru's mind ringing as the profound sense of wrongness that saturated the entire situation deepened. He was wary that there was definitely something off about this situation, about this kid. He just didn't know what…

Or, more accurately, he did know – or at the very least had a vague idea – of what was going on. He just refused to believe it, dismissing it as the sort of bullshit plot twist typical of a budget horror movie. Not as something that happened in real life.

Then again… this wasn't real life, was it?

Reisuke, still in the midst of catching his breath from his previous chortle, suddenly turned around. The definitive manic look held in his eyes was all the confirmation Yukiteru needed.

"You _idiot_ ," he spluttered, his cheeks looking fit to burst. When they did, the laughter burst forth like a nuclear detonation. "I knew it! It's been too long since I've had direct contact with a Subject! I've forgotten how ridiculously gullible they are!"

"What… did you do with Akise…?" Yukiteru choked out as he backpedalled rapidly away from the five-year-old who was suddenly exuding an aura of utter malevolence.

"Akise?" Reisuke cocked his head, before his brow furrowed in a deep frown. "Oh… _that_ rogue. Well, he's wherever he was originally going to teleport to. Probably trying to get back here. But it's _useless!"_ Reisuke seemed to put all the emphasis his little body could muster on that one word. "I've hacked the standard security encryptions of this area. Now there's no way he can possibly get in! Well, unless –" He cut himself off, realising his mistake.

Yukiteru winced as he rammed into a set of railings. Turning his head slightly only revealed a sharp drop of about ten metres behind him, ending in a patch of dirty tarmac.

Inwardly cursing, he turned back to the advancing Reisuke. "U-unless what?" he stammered.

"Unless nothing!" Reisuke shrieked, his body shuddering from head to toe as though he were about to let loose in a temper tantrum. "Nothing is more elite than me!"

Yukiteru briefly thought that, had he not been so terrified in that instance, he would've found Reisuke's arrogance incredibly annoying.

"Deus is expecting you," Reisuke continued, his tone now marginally calmer. "After Big Sister failed at the Akashic Records, I suppose he finally thought that he had need of my elite skills –"

"W-wait," Yukiteru interrupted. "Who's 'Big Sister'?"

"Gasai Yuno, of course," Reisuke explained proudly.

Yukiteru nodded somewhat detachedly. It seemed strange, but then he remembered that Mur Mur had mentioned earlier that the Regulators had once been a family of sorts. Although, admittedly, he couldn't quite see Yuno as ever being the sisterly type.

"Anyway," Reisuke continued conversationally. "Deus knew that I would be able to track you down easily. I _knew_ you'd come here," he declared triumphantly. "It was obvious. Big Sister never was good at checking the obvious places." He made a noise that could've been a sigh. "But that's her problem."

He stared directly at Yukiteru and grinned another of his horrific grins. "And guess what?" Reisuke crowed. "Deus has updated my Ability specifically for this job. That thing in your hand…" His gaze settled pointedly on Yukiteru's flip phone. "I can block some of its communications with the Akashic Records. That's why it's no longer telling you the future! It's practically useless to you now, so why don't you just hand it over?"

Yukiteru instinctively shifted the few inches backward that were available between himself and the railing. He had no idea what Deus wanted with his phone, but considering the fact that Minene was willing to kill him in order to get it, he guessed that it was somehow important to the Regulators' plans.

The noirette tried desperately to calm himself down, but, he reflected, it wasn't easy when a five-year-old with a murderous expression on his face was closing in. Yukiteru realised that any resistance he could offer would be futile. Running away was rendered pointless when Reisuke could effortlessly teleport ahead of him and block his path. And as for fighting? Well, the notion was almost comical. He couldn't imagine a situation that was possibly more unmatched.

The only thing he could do was stall for time until Akise managed to break past the encryptions that Reisuke had put in place. The little Regulator had already let slip that there _was_ indeed a chink in the armour that he had surrounded himself with; for all his bravado, it seemed that he made the same clumsy mistakes that any other child would.

"Why… why do you want my phone so badly?" Yukiteru managed through his quaking lips.

Reisuke stopped abruptly and stared through the noirette quizzically, as though in deep consideration. "Deus never told me. …But I know it's incredibly important. And I also know that Deus would never lie to me!" His voice suddenly rose as his face deepened into a scowl. "The… the answer isn't important! So don't you dare question it!" Reisuke's expression could now only be described as ballistic. A rapid flash of digits later and a gigantic crowbar almost double the height of its wielder materialised in the Regulator's hands. "It's too bad that Deus wants you alive," he snarled, "because it takes all the fun out of killing you!"

The pointed edge of the crowbar glinted macabrely in the glowing corona of the lamp above. Yukiteru knew immediately that that thing was going to hit him, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.

The impact came several seconds before the pain. The Subject first had the rather pleasurable sensation of weightlessness; though it could hardly be described as pleasurable when he could easily see what followed it.

The fall was near-instantaneous. Yukiteru felt every bone in his body shudder, and was fairly certain that he also heard a few tendons snap. At the same time, the crowbar blow to his jaw that had sent him flying came in at full force. The entire left side of his face felt a ruin, crumbling in itself, dissolving into near-unimaginable pain. He spluttered out an oozing glob of blood from his mashed lips.

Yukiteru's phone buzzed in his hand, where it had somehow remained, unscathed, throughout his fall. However, the noirette barely heard it. His vision was focused entirely on the silvery edge of the crowbar that was arcing downwards to greet him.

A streak of white suddenly blurred past, obscuring Yukiteru's view of the impeding hit. At first, the Subject was completely lost, convinced it was some sort of hallucination brought on by a near-death experience. That was, until the pale streak suddenly focused into familiarity.

Akise Aru stood in deadlock with Houjou Reisuke as he blocked the latter's crowbar with his bare hands. Both Regulators stared into each other, red and green eyes swirling with mutual contempt.

Reisuke let out an illegible, feral noise and twisted the crowbar out of Akise's grip. He thrashed at the albino several times in a sequence too rapid for a Subject's eyes to follow; Akise, however, was equally swift in dodging each attack. He countered with a kick that sent Reisuke sprawling.

Reisuke immediately picked himself up, his hands keeping surprisingly good grip on the crowbar despite being swathed in sock puppets. "Don't think you can beat me, rogue," he gloated through yet another childishly violent grin. He then immediately disappeared.

Yukiteru almost jumped as his phone buzzed once again. With some effort and an excruciating amount of pain, he managed to configure himself into a sitting position and bring the phone's display up to his face.

 ** _5:51 P.M. [Sakurami Amusement Park]_** _Akise-kun and Houjou Reisuke begin to battle. The action's so quick I can barely follow it._

 ** _5:51 P.M. [Sakurami Amusement Park]_** _Houjou Reisuke suddenly disappears. Is he preparing a surprise attack?_

 ** _5:52 P.M. [Sakurami Amusement Park]_** _The surprise attack comes to Akise-kun's left. It's a brutal blow, and he looks wounded._

Yukiteru didn't consider it at that point, but he knew that when Akise had broken the seal that had prevented him from re-entering the amusement park, that had also managed to break the block Reisuke had placed on his phone's clairvoyance. Because now the entries were coming in so quickly, Yukiteru could barely keep track.

"Akise-kun! To your left!" the Subject yelled.

Without wasting any time, Akise span round and blocked the oncoming attack. Reisuke vanished again.

"To your right!" And again.

"Behind you!" And again.

"He's coming from above!"

This time, Akise managed to grapple Reisuke's crowbar and yank it out of his grip. The tiny Regulator toppled to the floor as Akise snapped the weapon in half, allowing it to disintegrate.

Reisuke attempted to stand, but Akise knocked him back down before his knees left the ground. With almost predatory speed, the albino Regulator grabbed Reisuke by the collar and slammed him forcefully into a nearby brick wall.

The green-eyed Regulator gasped in pain, and Yukiteru thought he could see blood dribbling down his chin. Despite this, he managed to force his mouth into a nonchalant smile.

"You rogues never learn, do you? You'll never be as elite as Deus. All because you let yourself get too attached to a stupid Subject –"

"Shut your mouth." Akise's red eyes were alien. Their former warmth and compassion had been swallowed into a scarlet whirlpool of hatred. Despite not being the recipient of that callous, almost vengeful stare, Yukiteru felt genuinely threatened by it.

 _Is this… is this really Akise…?_

The tension in the albino's shoulders dropped as he let out a substantial sigh. "I'm not going to allow you to provoke me. Just… just get out of my way."

Before Reisuke could reply, Akise drew his arm back as though preparing to launch a shot-putt and smashed the other Regulator's head against the wall.

Just before Reisuke's body dissolved into incomprehensible digits, for a single brief second, the expression on that childish face distorted into one of absolute fear. Having been stripped of his smug outer layers of bravado and confidence, Yukiteru saw the infantile vestige that they left. In that instant, Houjou Reisuke showed himself truly as what he was; a child.

He had been made this way, programmed with the destructive innocence and blind trust of a child, for Deus Ex Machina's own benefit. He was there to manipulate, as he himself had been manipulated into this unnatural killing machine. And his juvenile mentality had been forced into situations that most would agree no child ever should.

In that instant, Yukiteru could barely look at his face. But then, thankfully, it was gone.

Akise instantly turned around to face the noirette. "Yukiteru-kun, are you alright?"

Akise's eyes had returned once again to their usual state of ataraxic intelligence and gentle compassion; but this did little to make Yukiteru feel any better about what had just transpired.

"Did you just… kill him…?" Yukiteru inquired in a voice barely higher than a whisper.

The Regulator averted his gaze as a pained look passed through his eyes. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that. But no, I assure you, he's not dead. It takes a lot more than that to kill a Regulator, believe me."

Yukiteru did; after all, he had no reason to doubt Akise. But his recent behaviour did make him wonder.

The albino had only ever been so possessed by rage whilst around Reisuke. But if the reason for such vehement anger was that it was directed towards Regulators who were still loyal to Deus, then why hadn't he acted the same way around Yuno? There was something going on beneath the surface here – Yukiteru was sure of it. But whether Akise would tell him or not was a different matter. And the Subject knew better than to ask in the current situation.

Akise knelt down before him. He seemed almost stricken by the sight of Yukiteru's face. The noirette attempted to smile, in order to signal that he was okay, only for half the nerve endings in his face to shriek in pain.

"Hold on. I'll fix you up." Akise shuffled forward. "This is going to hurt a little," he added as he laid his hand to rest on Yukiteru's cheek.

The noirette winced only slightly at the sharp sting and sudden _crack_ that accompanied the regeneration of his skin and cheekbone. Akise's hand remained in position after the procedure had completed, as though unwilling to break contact.

Yukiteru blinked. Akise was incredibly close to him… but the most surprising thing was perhaps how oddly comforting it felt. Part of his brain acknowledged how strange the situation was, but as for the other, more impulsive regions… well, they were the reason why his face felt like it was burning off.

Akise seemed to display a similar response. Yukiteru felt the hand against his skin trembling, as though wavering between two different decisions, neither of which seemed to be the right one.

After a long moment, he finally exhaled and moved back. "Can you stand?" he asked, suddenly matter-of-fact.

"Uh… y-yeah…" Yukiteru mumbled, and stood up, with the aid of a hand from Akise.

"We're going to need to take some extra measures to cover our tracks from now on," the Regulator mused. "Now that we know they can hack into your phone's communications…"

Yukiteru nodded, though his attention was divided. A semicircle of fairgoers who seemed intent on remaining until closing time surrounded them. Some were muttering to themselves and those around them, whilst others pointed, took photos or furiously dialled the emergency services.

 _Are there Subjects among them?_ Yukiteru wondered. _And if so… what do they see…?_

He guessed that there was no real way of knowing.

After all, in a world of illusions, reality depends on perspective.


	7. Chapter 7: Mother's Child

**Why, hello there again. Do feel free to pelt me with virtual objects. I do believe I deserve it.**

 **Anyway, this is the seventh chapter. This is where shit starts to get really real. Well, no more real than previous chapters really, but still pretty darn real.**

 **I have a more than half-formed idea for how this might end now, and I'm actually feeling pretty motivated to finish this. I won't make any chapter estimates right now, although I am personally hoping for somewhere inbetween 15 and 20 chapters, which will hopefully all be uploaded within just over a years' time.**

 **Still, that's a long-term goal, and in the meantime I'll be trying to motivate myself to get the next chapter out by next month (next month being the end of May/beginning of June). I'm serious about it this time. ...I say that every time.**

 **Anyway, that's enough of me blathering on. Enjoy the chapter.**

 **-Le Fez-Wearing Husky**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven: Mother's Child**

 **[Sakurami City]**

"It was all because I fell in love with a Subject."

The words escaped Akise's lips with a sigh. Yukiteru's head jerked up suddenly, surprised by the abrupt sentence that cut through their communal silence.

Crimson eyes briefly met cobalt before gently detaching themselves. The Regulator emitted another sigh.

"It was early days. The Operation had just started; we were exactly four months in. Deus had told us all to remain inconspicuous, to do our utmost to blend in with the Subjects and the ornaments. Well, I say he 'told' us… but it had been built into our programs already. It went without saying."

Akise paused. A perfectly ordinary car rolled down the perfectly ordinary street. It was a typical scene of suburban serenity. Arboreal blossoms wafted on the breeze, spiralling towards the tower which loomed authoritatively over the skyline.

During this silence, the soft footfalls of two perfectly extraordinary people could be heard hitting the perfectly ordinary pavement.

When Akise finally broke the silence again, he emitted a chuckle; albeit one of soft, subtle bitterness. "Back then, I had unquestioning faith in Deus. I took his intentions very seriously. So I did what was asked of me…" He chuckled again. "I'm sorry, it's just… the _irony._ In the end, I obeyed his orders _too_ well. And, thinking back on it, it was because of that that I ended up as a rogue in the first place."

There was another, shorter pause. Yukiteru felt tempted to speak, but decided against it. He would let Akise tell his story in his own time.

"They were just a kid, really. I should've known better, even then. I should've been able to guess what I was getting them into. In fact… I knew. I knew, but I just ignored it. All for the sake of being with them.

"I wasn't even surprised when Houjou came looking for me. We met, for the first time since our briefing at the very start of the Operation, atop Sakurami Tower. He told me that I shouldn't be getting too close to the Subjects. I asked him, 'Well, why not? After all, they're the ones we're supposed to be observing. Doesn't it make sense to get as close to them as possible?'"

Akise shook his head. "Houjou burst into an incomprehensible rant after that, and left. That was all his child's mind could think to do in that situation. But… that same mind… is one of uncanny genius. He's a great strategic planner. I will give him that."

Yukiteru could sense by the increasingly sombre tone of Akise's voice that his tale was about to come to a close.

"His plan was… e-executed… perfectly…" The albino's usually smooth, unblemished voice was fraying, cracking like parched ground in a heat wave. "I didn't expect him to strike so soon, even if they _were_ orders from Deus. As soon as I got back, they were… they were… just… sitting upright, with this… this serene expression on their face, almost as though nothing had happened. Almost as though there wasn't a bloody gaping hole in their chest.

"Houjou hadn't deleted their avatar from the system yet. He left me to do that. And all the while I was wondering, what was to become of their body in the outside world? I know, a strange thing to think, but… in that instant, I realised that I knew so little of what was going on outside. Could I really accept what Deus had told me as the truth? As time went on, this feeling only grew. And now, here I am."

He glanced at Yukiteru, his smile a curved line of melancholia. "You're wondering why I'm telling you all this now, correct? Well, my point is… I don't want to have another Subject's death on my hands. You don't have to be this close to the fighting, Yukiteru-kun. All you have to do is say the word, and I can make it so that you won't come to any more harm. Of course, it'll only be a temporary fix, but it'll keep you safe for much longer than out here."

Yukiteru blinked. "You… you don't have to worry so much about me, Akise-kun," he blurted. "I just, I…" He wavered from the Regulator's gaze. "This is as much my problem as it is yours. I want to help you… find out what's really going on here."

Akise nodded in understanding. "That's alright. Just let me know if you ever change your mind. I won't lie to you, Yukiteru-kun; it's going to be a bloody battlefield. It would be a miracle if both of us get through this unscathed."

The silence settled back in between the two of them, snugly wrapping the modest street in its thick folds. Several paces later, a sudden thought occurred to Yukiteru.

"Why are we heading this way, Akise-kun?"

"We're going to meet someone who might just be able to prevent Deus from hacking your phone." Akise's voice was steady, but he put just enough emphasis on the _might_ to suggest that he was uncertain.

"Are they… a friend of yours?" Yukiteru wavered. The notion was somehow strange.

Up until now, Yukiteru had been convinced that it was just the two of them in this world, alone. The two of them, versus a god.

Could they really have an ally, hidden away somewhere amongst the elaborate façade of this pseudo-city?

Akise smiled. "Not a friend, per se. But she might just be willing to help us out."

Again, the _might_ was a subtly uncertain one.

The noirette tensed. Just what lay ahead of them? From the way Akise spoke, it sounded as though there would be some sort of catch to this deal…

"Who… who is she? Can we trust her?"

"Hmm. That's a fair question, Yukiteru-kun." The albino appeared to mull it over for a few moments before continuing. "Well, there are few things that can be truly said about her. She doesn't really do anything to defy Deus, except… Well. She doesn't take sides, is all I can tell you. She has her own side, her own territory. She's not a slave to Deus like the other Regulators, but at the same time, he doesn't consider her a threat…"

Yukiteru blinked, more puzzled than he was before he asked the question. "What does that mean, Akise-kun?"

Akise stopped. His reply was even more softly-spoken than usual, and instead of meeting Yukiteru's eyes, his own gaze was fixed on a point somewhere on the northeast horizon.

"My apologies. You'll soon find out for yourself, Yukiteru-kun."

The noirette followed the Regulator cautiously down a back alley. The two of them were immediately submerged in the gloom. Their footsteps left aural ripples in the confined space.

They emerged into a spacious courtyard teeming with flowerbeds, each tended to the finest, most exquisite detail. In the centre, a gleaming complex lay in serene inertia, its single floor spread wide and languorously across the landscape.

A sign propped up next to a flowerbed just before the building read _"Mother's Village"_.

Yukiteru guessed that it must be some sort of institution – an orphanage or care home, perhaps.

Yet, it seemed uncharacteristically inviting. Comforting. Everything about it – from the glittering windows to the complex's soft architectural curves – carried the impression of happiness, tenderness, love. It was a far departure from the gloom and despair that most orphanages were associated with.

The noirette didn't need Akise to say anything in order to exercise caution. He had learned quickly over the past few days that judging things at face value in this world would earn you nothing but a one-way ride into the mortal abyss.

And that abyss _was_ real, even if nothing else in this world was.

The two of them stepped synchronously towards the front door. It was painted a carefree shade of cyan.

Yukiteru tried his best to relieve the tension in his body as Akise punched his thumb against the doorbell. The muffled tone resounded through the interior.

A young girl's voice responded, her words just about audible through the thick outer door. "Ta-kun! We've got a visitor!"

"Tch! Why's it always got to be me, huh?" came the response in the form of a somewhat irritable masculine grunt.

Reluctant footsteps traced their way to the door. The portal opened with a sharp _click_ that made Yukiteru flinch in its suddenness.

Olivine eyes glared between them from a face contorted by indignance. A flash of recognition sparked within them as they met Akise. "It's been a while, huh," he muttered. "Here to bother us with another of your favours, I assume."

Akise smiled pleasantly in return. "We'd like to see Ueshita-san, if you don't mind."

The boy's frown deepened. "Fine, but you'd better be willing to pay us back for our trouble this time. I don't want Mother coming to any harm because of you." His eyes flickered suspiciously towards Yukiteru. "And who's this?"

"A-Amano Yukiteru," the noirette spluttered hesitantly. "I'm a friend… of Akise-kun."

"Is that so?" The boy, who couldn't have been much older than Yukiteru and yet was at least half a head taller, adjusted his grip on the door frame. "Well, I suppose I'm going to have to let you in. Just make sure you don't leave any traces. The last thing we want is Deus knowing that we're helping _rogues_." He practically spat the last word out.

"I'm Nanba Taro, by the way," he introduced brusquely, more as an afterthought, as he dipped his head back into the building.

Yukiteru and Akise followed Taro as he briskly escorted them through the charmingly decorated hallways of Mother's Village. Yukiteru hung a few paces behind and leaned in towards Akise.

"Is he also a Regulator?" he inquired softly.

"That depends on your perspective. From an official viewpoint, he's a Subject like you, but unofficially…" Akise's voice trailed into a thoughtful silence before resuming.

"Well, let's just say that Ueshita Kamado, the owner of this place… can impart some aspects of her Ability to others. She can't make Subjects as powerful as Regulators, of course. But she takes them up one step from being utterly powerless."

Yukiteru stared at Taro's back whilst absent-mindedly tracing the outline of his pocketed phone. _The lines between Regulator and Subject… are becoming blurred,_ he noticed. _And it looks as if I'm not the only one…_

"B-but… why? How?" the noirette found himself asking.

"I don't know, Yukiteru-kun," Akise admitted. "It seems inconceivable that Deus doesn't know about this already. So why hasn't he intervened? Is this part of his plan? Does he maybe see Ueshita-san as some sort of asset that he's biding his time to use?" The albino shook his head. "I don't try to press for information. Ueshita-san… is a lot more powerful than she looks." A rather hapless smile twisted his features.

When Yukiteru glanced again at the walls, the flowery décor seemed suddenly disconcerting. _Just what is going on here…?_ The Subject had no idea if he was right to be afraid, but even so, the way Akise talked about this Ueshita Kamado… it sounded as though there was something sinister lurking in the shadows of this place.

He flicked open his phone and warily checked the upcoming entries.

 ** _3:34 P.M. [Mother's Village Orphanage]_** _We meet Ueshita Kamado. She's a kindly woman and doesn't seem threatening._

 ** _3:36 P.M. [Mother's Village Orphanage]_** _Akise-kun begins to negotiate a deal with Ueshita-san. It looks as if they want something in return for their service._

Nothing even vaguely worrying there. But as Yukiteru had learned from his previous battle with Reisuke, he couldn't put unquestioning trust in his diary's words.

When Taro abruptly stopped in his tracks, the others obligingly followed suit, Yukiteru hastily pocketing his phone.

They had halted just before a set of sliding doors that connected to a pentagonal inner courtyard. A young girl stood outside, as though on guard duty, with her arms folded and an inscrutable expression on her face.

"Orin-chan," Taro began, "I've got two visitors here to see Mother."

Orin gazed between them impassively. "Oh," she muttered vaguely upon noticing Akise, but made no further comment. She turned back to Taro. "Yeah, sure. They can see her. Lead them in, Ta-kun." She pulled back the door, revealing the lush vista of one of the most beautiful gardens Yukiteru had ever seen.

Vibrant orchids bloomed in each corner beneath the verdant tendrils of grape vines and the moss-clad roots of trees. Everything seemed almost too colourful to be real; even the inert grey pebbles that spiralled outward from the centre possessed a kind of subtle radiance. A small fountain sprouted from the garden's centre, potted plants surrounding it on all sides. The detail was simultaneously minimalistic and profoundly complex.

Beside the fountain knelt a squat figure, hunched over an intricately gnarled bonsai tree. As Taro led the two of them closer, Yukiteru could see that she was a rather plump, round-faced woman dressed in a disproportionately large chef's hat. A white apron was tied over her dress and her tender hands were encased in gardening gloves.

She glanced up from pruning the roots of the tree as they arrived. "Oh! Visitors?" she beamed, bowing before them. "It's been quite a while, hasn't it, Akise-kun?"

The albino dipped his head respectfully and smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Ueshita-san."

Yukiteru tried to ignore Taro's suspicious glare as he took his lead from the others. "H-hello," he mumbled warily.

"I'm sorry that I'm not in any position to offer you anything," Kamado continued apologetically. "Though you are always welcome to stay for dinner."

"Oh, we don't mind," Akise smiled. "And I couldn't help noticing, but your garden is beautiful. You must put a lot of effort into it."

Kamado chuckled. "Oh, you don't need to flatter an old woman like me!"

Yukiteru stared. Earlier, Akise had mentioned that Kamado might be their enemy, and yet now he was treating her like some old formal friend. Just what exactly was he supposed to believe about this woman…?

"So," Kamado prompted after a momentary silence, "What is it I can help you with, Akise-kun?"

"As you probably know, we're being pursued by Deus's Regulators. We've recently acquired a certain asset, but we're going to need some extra protection in order to use it." Akise laid a hand on Yukiteru's shoulder. "This is Amano Yukiteru. He is the sole person capable of using the Observer's Diary, a unique skill that he can access through his phone. But the program can still be hacked by other Regulators. We were wondering… if you could maybe help us stop that from happening."

Before Kamado could answer, Taro suddenly stepped into the conversation, clearing his throat with loud deliberation. "And what will be our compensation for this? If you're careless and end up leaving a trace, they could easily find out that we're responsible. Mother doesn't stand a chance against the other Regulators! You can see it, can't you? Her Ability isn't one that's suited for direct combat!"

Kamado sighed. "I'm sorry about Ta-kun. He means well, but doesn't –"

"Forgive me, Mother, but you're putting far too much trust in these strangers," Taro growled. "Akise-kun hasn't repaid his debts in the past, so what's to say he won't now? And just yesterday, that demonic… _child_ appeared and insisted we give up all the information we have on rogue Regulators. Mother, I don't honestly think we should –"

"W-wait!" Yukiteru interjected fearfully, "don't you mean… Houjou Reisuke?"

"Yes," Taro seethed. "That psychopath! He's nothing but a mindless slave to Deus. I know he'd rip us apart without hesitation if he became even the tiniest bit convinced that we were a threat to him. He's a _child_. He doesn't understand neutrality."

He pushed forward so that he was inches from Akise's face. "And when we agree to help _you_ , they're probably going to come again. Only this time, they're not gonna just leave us be. So what're you gonna do to help protect us, huh?"

"Threats won't be necessary, Ta-kun." Kamado spoke gently, and yet her words evoked such authority that Taro immediately stepped backward, returning to the side of his mother. "I am certain that Akise will be able to repay us for our help. Won't you, Akise?" Her smile could only be described as reasonable.

 _Akise wasn't lying. She truly is powerful…_ Yukiteru could tell at a glance that all the orphans in this complex revered their mother. They followed her like the disciples of some omnibenevolent prophetess, obeying her every command. In this place, he realised, Deus had no power. The Subjects belonged to her, not to Deus's experiment.

But what was she trying to use them for? Was she really just satisfying the maternal instincts she had, presumably, been programmed with? Or was this all for a purpose?

 _It has to be,_ Yukiteru reasoned. _After all, Deus created her that way… didn't he?_

"Of course," Akise replied. "I will try to make it up to you anyway I can –"

He never finished his sentence, because at that precise moment, Orin burst hurriedly through the sliding door, slamming the portal shut so rapidly that it shuddered on its hinges. The girl breathlessly yelled, "Mother Kamado! We're under attack!"

Taro was the first to respond to this news. He rounded on Akise, screaming, "This is _your_ fault, rogue! _You_ led them here, and now they're going to kill us just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time! Orin!"

"Yes, Ta-kun?" Orin rasped, her body jittering with adrenalin.

"Get the others out if you can! And whatever you do, don't let them near Mother!"

Orin nodded wordlessly and ran out. Just before she pulled back the sliding door, a digital ripple congealed at her side and a fully-formed katana appeared in her outstretched arm. She then dashed into the complex at unbelievable speed.

 _So they really do have the Ability…_

Yukiteru however had no more time to contemplate that notion, as Akise urgently grabbed his arm. "Yukiteru, we need to get out of here," he muttered, before turning towards Kamado. "I'm sorry, Ueshita-san… I didn't anticipate this."

"You've got some nerve." Taro's tone was dangerously quiet. Then, at a speed faster than Yukiteru's eyes could follow, the boy's hand lashed out and grasped Akise tightly at the collar. "What do you have to say for yourself?! You _traitor_ , you –"

A gleaming dagger had already appeared in Taro's free hand.

Yukiteru didn't even feel his body move. All he registered was the fact that he was now, very suddenly, standing in front of Akise, helplessly watching Taro bear down on him. And then there was nothing else but pain.

"Arragh!" the noirette yelped as the dagger sank deep into his abdomen. Blood started pooling beneath his shirt with astonishing rapidity.

Taro let go of the weapon in shock and staggered backwards. "You _fool_ ," he uttered, his voice a heavy broth of guilt, horror and exasperation. "You complete and utter idiot! He's a Regulator! He can't be killed just by a mere dagger…! You must know that!"

Yukiteru felt Akise's arms wrap around him as the Regulator endeavoured to hold him upright. "Then why is it…" the noirette grunted through the searing pain in his gut, "that you're so intent on protecting your mother?"

Taro stared at him incredulously. "When a Regulator is dispatched, they are sent to the Akashic Records. We couldn't even spend an instant without our mother. Her death isn't the issue here!"

"Then I guess we're the same." Yukiteru forced a smile, in spite of himself.

"Yukiteru, hang in there," Akise muttered. The noirette heard both surprise and guilt in the Regulator's voice.

Yukiteru managed a chuckle. "It's not your fault, Akise. I –"

He was cut off before he could explain himself. The splintering sound of a drastic explosion erupted behind them. They all turned to see that the door had been ripped right out of its frame and now lay in scattered fragments, Orin sprawled amongst them.

The girl picked herself up and thrust her katana defensively out in front of her. There was a sharp, metallic _clang_ as the sword viciously collided with another blade.

Yukiteru saw a flash of pink amongst the rapid scuffle that ensued and felt his chest freeze as though blasted with liquid nitrogen.

 _Shit…_

Kamado was also quick to catch on to the exact nature of their enemy. She strode out in front of them, her arms projected wide. "Ta-kun! You must get out while you still can! I will find you again and catch up to you. Tell the others –"

"No!" Taro roared. "You know I can't do that! The moment you're sent to the Akashic Records, I'll lose the Ability you bestowed upon me. I'll be helpless without it, and then they'll use that to find me and strike. It would be pointless! I'd rather die fighting!"

And before anyone could even think to stop him, Taro was already dashing recklessly towards Orin's assailant.

As Yukiteru watched the fight unfold from his helpless vantage point, he recalled that his phone had not even given him the slightest warning of any imminent attack.

Akise had called it their secret weapon against Deus… but what use was it if it could be so easily suppressed?

The noirette felt an odd feeling of guilt pool heavily in his chest as he watched Taro dash into the fray. He knew it wasn't his fault, and yet… he felt so _useless_. If his diary had been in proper working order, this whole fiasco could have been avoided. But instead, the orphans of Mother's Village were destined to die.

 _Shit…_

Orin managed to defend herself from the onslaught for mere moments before her body was blasted skyward, gushing crimson spirals into the atmosphere. Her limp frame landed with a dull clatter amongst the pebbles, limbs twisted at a grotesque angle.

Taro bellowed wordlessly upon noticing his comrade's fall and dashed furiously towards the magenta streak that curved around to meet him.

He barely took two steps before his neck erupted into an oozing mess of arteries and axons. Gasai Yuno materialised as the headless body of Taro Nanba collapsed into the orchids, casually swinging the boy's head back and forth between her fingers like a pendulum before tossing it into the flowerbed behind her.

Both the Subjects' bodies immediately started to disintegrate. A swarm of deconstructed pixels trailed off them like smoke into nothingness, and within moments, both were gone, along with the dagger in Yukiteru's gut. No trace was left; no indication that they had ever existed in this world.

"So we finally meet again, Amano-kuuun!" Yuno trilled gleefully. Her smile was pleasant enough, but the manic hunger in her eyes was enough to make her entire expression absolutely horrifying.

It was all the noirette could do to hold the contents of his bladder. He stiffened as Yuno approached, wincing as he felt the muscles tense against his stab wound.

The rose-haired Regulator abruptly stopped her advance. "What… what happened to you?!" Her voice was almost shrill with panic and, Yukiteru noticed, filled with concern. Or perhaps he was just imagining that…?

Yuno's gaze flickered from the dagger wound up to Akise's crimson orbs, and her face distorted into a dark grimace. "You…"

The Regulator readied her stance for a charge, but never got as far as initiating it.

A wild tornado of soil and pebbles erupted around her, twisting together into knotted helices and congealing like algae on pondwater. They latched to Yuno's wrists and ankles, forming grimy shackles that tethered her to the ground. She screeched apoplectically, but the bonds only contracted and strengthened their hold. Her body flickered wildly in a desperate attempt at teleportation, but to no avail.

Kamado turned to Yukiteru and Akise urgently. "They won't hold her for long," she murmured, her gentle voice somehow cutting across Yuno's frenzied roars and wails. "Ta-kun…" A pained expression crossed her motherly face, but only for a brief moment before she continued. "You heard him, didn't you? I'm not a Regulator who specialises in combat. The most powerful part of my Ability is that which I give to others… so please, accept this from me."

The rough fingers of Kamado's pudgy gardening gloves closed over Yukiteru's own. He felt a buzzing vibration travel along the length of his arm, and at the same time, his phone emitted a single syllable of static tone.

"I have completed your favour," Kamado breathed, smiling. "I wish you the best in your fight against Deus's Regulators. However, I see no reason why we can't both benefit from this. If you are ever in need of help, seek out the Regulators named Ai Mikami and Marco Ikusaba. I have left a message for them on your phone. If you show it to them, they might just be able to assist you."

Her hand left Yukiteru's as her gaze travelled up towards Akise. "Take care."

Akise merely nodded, though for some unknown reason a troubled look passed his features upon hearing those two words.

"What do you think you're doing, you old bat?!" Yuno shrieked. "You're giving away our secrets… our powers… to _Subjects!_ I can't believe Deus hasn't issued the order to kill you yet!"

"Are my sins really so egregious?" Kamado mused. "I don't believe so. Gasai Yuno, you have killed many Subjects. What do you think Deus would say to that? The Subjects are an integral part of our Operation. Without them, our function is meaningless. I see no reason for Deus to remove me from the system. I have only ever done my duty, as a mother… and as a Regulator."

With a final resounding scream, Yuno wrenched free of her shackles and pounced on Kamado.

Yukiteru did not see what happened next, as in that very moment the entire scene dissolved into a whirlpool of swirling digits.

He leant back against Akise, allowing the other boy to clutch him tightly. He closed his eyes, listening to the roar of data thundering overhead, below, all around.

The pain in his abdomen was dissipating. Within moments, it was gone.

Gone, as though it had never existed.


	8. Chapter 8: Rust And Concrete

**I should probably give up on making promises. _''**

 **But I hope that the wait will seem worth it. I realise that even though this story is tagged as "Romance", there hasn't really been a lot of it so far due to all the overly complicated world-building and plot that I tend to inject into my AUs. This chapter is an attempt to reconcile that, with some fluff dumped on top of the usual plot developments. But anyway, let me know what you think.**

 **I think I'm going to try and focus more on completing this story from now on, seeing as it's the only one that I really seem to know what I'm doing with at the moment. So that should (hopefully) come with more regular updates... Ha. Who am I trying to kid?**

 **Still, I'll try not to get myself too distracted in the meantime and I hope to see you again soon.**

 **-Le Fez-Wearing Husky**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight: Rust And Concrete**

 **[Sakurami City Industrial Block]**

"Somewhere… Somewhere around here…"

The soft murmur was swallowed quickly by the hulking shadows of shipping containers and warehouse buildings. A scramble of scaffolding loomed overhead, the rusting wire meshwork scraping the clouds. Cranes loomed imposingly in the distance, powerful even when inert.

Yukiteru's cobalt eyes were glued to his phone screen as he cautiously navigated the labyrinth formed by the haphazard placement of shipping containers. He frowned as he alternated between the entries of his phone diary and the message that Ueshita Kamado had sent him just before he and Akise had evacuated Mother's Village.

It was a vague and rather brusque message, but even so, Yukiteru couldn't help but feel a pang each time he read over it. It was clearly Kamado's will, constructed in the instant that she recognised her death as imminent.

* * *

 _Dear Ai and Marco,_

 _I hope you have been well. I have missed you terribly since you left, but just know that I do not blame you for anything. Occasionally parents and their children have a conflict of opinion that leads to a division, and finally a separation. That's just how it is sometimes._

 _By the time you receive this message I will have already been deleted from the system. My core program will have been destroyed, and as far as I am aware there is no possible way to recover it. I do not think that Deus will let even an old woman like me off the hook for blatant insubordination. The reality is that, in the end, I was not careful enough. Perhaps you were right when you said that keeping up a façade of neutrality wouldn't guarantee my safety in the long run._

 _The ones who delivered this message to you should be two young men – a Subject and a Regulator. You may already be familiar with the Regulator. Both are friends of mine, and they can be trusted to provide whatever assistance you require. They may not share our loyalties, but at the same time, they are not your enemies. They are trying to bring down Deus's reign, same as you._

 _I wish you all the best._

 _-Mother Kamado_

* * *

Yukiteru sighed sadly and flipped his phone closed. As soon as he had seen that message, he had felt almost obliged to deliver it to the intended recipients. Clearly, whoever these people – Ai Mikami and Marco Ikusaba – were, they had once been very close to Kamado. And Kamado had more than proved that she was trustworthy in the few short moments before Yukiteru had escaped.

Akise hadn't been opposed to the idea when Yukiteru had first proposed it, but even so, he had seemed somewhat hesitant. In his usual mysterious fashion, he hadn't gone into the details, but it looked as if he had a reason not to fully trust these two Regulators.

Yukiteru couldn't say that he blamed him. He knew virtually nothing about these people, and most of the Regulators he had encountered so far had been hostile or, at the very least, sketchy. He had learned the hard way that there were no safe assumptions to be made in this world.

The noirette glanced up. Akise was just ahead, in the midst of a thorough inspection of a nearby shipping container. He ran his pale fingers along the ridged surface, felt every corner, peered through every miniscule gap.

Yukiteru watched him in fascination. No doubt, Akise's mind was running all sorts of complicated analyses, calculating probabilities based on the data immediately before him. And yet… he couldn't think of Akise's movement as anything other than human. It was smooth, gentle, delicate – and not at all mechanical.

And yet, that was exactly what Akise was; a computer program. A mass of data and algorithms, nothing more. Even so…

Yukiteru couldn't accept it. It was a bizarre, even incomprehensible notion to him, watching Akise and his profound, genuine… humanness. It was in that moment that he became convinced.

 _He_ is _human. He might not be a conventional flesh-and-blood one, but he's still a person, with emotions, desires, ambitions._ Yukiteru couldn't even think of him as artificial or synthetic. In fact, he could accept that just about anything in this world had been fabricated by a computer… but not Akise.

Seemingly satisfied with his inspection, the albino stepped back. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at Yukiteru.

The noirette blushed as he realised that he had been staring and averted his gaze, but quickly glanced up again when Akise addressed him.

"I haven't found any telltale signs of a hidden area so far. Has your phone diary told you anything, Yukiteru-kun?"

"Oh… no," Yukiteru admitted. "It pretty much just tells me what to watch out for on the path I'm currently taking… I guess it's the Observer's Diary, after all. It only works if it's something I can directly see."

Akise rubbed his chin in thought. "Only what you can directly see… Ah, well, I suppose that does tell us something, after all. Thank you, Yukiteru-kun." The smile again.

"Oh, uh, you're welcome," Yukiteru replied hesitantly, unsure if he deserved credit, considering nothing of note had actually shown up on his diary. "So… do you have any ideas about where to look next, Akise-kun?"

"Hmm…" The albino glanced around the area contemplatively. "Although I have met all the Regulators at least once, I've never been all that aware of Mikami-san's or Ikusaba-san's habits. Also… it doesn't help that the very nature of their programming is… unpredictable."

"What do you mean by that?" Yukiteru asked, puzzled.

"Well… It's rather difficult to explain, but… Even though they are two individuals, there are times at which they can function almost as a singular unit, as one person. Needless to say, all their actions, and possibly even thoughts, can become perfectly synchronised." Akise half-smiled. "When it comes to battle, you can see that in action, and I must say, it's pretty impressive."

 _Functioning… as one person?_ Yukiteru had to admit, the respective Abilities of these Regulators seemed to be getting more and more bizarre. First there had been Kamado, who could impart her powers to Subjects, and now this…

Yukiteru looked up at his surroundings and frowned. _But where could they be?_

This, the Industrial Block of Sakurami City, had been mentioned on a list of locations that Kamado had sent alongside her message. According to the matriarch of Mother's Village, each of these locations were places that were frequented by Ai and Marco. Akise had picked out this one as the least conspicuous, but it seemed that wasn't entirely working to their advantage. They had been searching now for around three hours, and the sun was now rapidly dipping into the horizon's crimson haze.

Yukiteru had to admit that it was a rather out-of-place location, based on the photograph that had come attached to Kamado's list. The image showed a happy young couple, and although it was difficult to discern much about them through one photograph, neither of them looked like the sort who would frequent industrial districts with any regularity. Marco, with his slicked pompadour, was the very image of a roughhouse biker, and Ai, with her striking violet hair, could be a pop singer or idol of some sort.

But, thinking back on what Akise had told him about rogue Regulators and the need to be inconspicuous, Yukiteru supposed that was the point.

Turning back to the albino, Yukiteru noticed the vermillion light of the setting sun reflecting in the Regulator's corneas. He released an involuntary yawn, and momentarily realised that it must have been the equivalent of at least an entire day since he had last slept. He had barely noticed it until now; from the moment he had woken up next to Akise, it had been a frenzied, adrenalin-fuelled rush, jumping from one life-or-death situation to the next with no intermediate respite.

He knew of course that Gasai Yuno or Houjou Reisuke could get the jump on them at any moment. He had seen first-hand that, regardless of how many security encryptions Akise put in place, they could never be totally safe as long as they remained in this world.

But there was a convincing illusion of serenity that surrounded this area. Coupled with the soft sunlight and the gentleness of Akise's eyes…

"Yukiteru-kun."

The patient voice echoed faintly in the noirette's mind, as though called from a distant shore. He snapped out of his stupor with a start.

"S-sorry, Akise-kun," he hastily apologised.

"It's alright. I… I suppose it's my own fault, for not allowing you enough time to rest…" Akise sighed. "I always weighed the risk of us getting caught against any benefit we could gain from resting up… and the danger was always too great. I am the one who should be apologising."

Yukiteru frowned at Akise's self-deprecating tone. He tried to think of some words of consolation, but the albino cut into his train of thought before he could formulate any.

"Well, in any case. Based on what your diary told us – or should I say, _didn't_ tell us – that warehouse over there seems to be a rather likely candidate." The Regulator indicated a squat, almost cuboid-shaped building around four hundred metres into the distance.

"How can you tell?" Yukiteru asked as they set off across the shipping yard at a swift, but not urgent, pace.

Akise smiled enigmatically. "Well, the fact that your diary can't tell us anything proves there is nothing of note in this area. However, I can definitely sense _something_ around or within that warehouse. Call it a disturbance… a sort of sudden change in temperature or pressure. Now, the only way such a thing could be possible would mean that the two Regulators we are seeking are both here, and yet not here."

"Here… and yet not here?" Yukiteru echoed in an attempt to keep up with Akise's cryptic explanation.

Akise paused for a moment, deeply in thought. "Did I ever tell you about pocket dimensions?"

"W-well, Mur Mur did," Yukiteru admitted. He remembered her strange vehicle – the one that appeared as a floating globe on the outside, but on the inside contained a vast and bizarre fantasyland. "But I thought that Regulators could only make them outside of Sakurami City itself?"

"Well, technically, yes. So, for all intents and purposes, a pocket dimension cannot exist within the main system – that is, Sakurami City. But, Mur Mur's vehicle aside, there should be at least one other way in which it _could_ be possible." He looked questioningly at Yukiteru. "Do you understand what is meant by the term 'software bug', Yukiteru-kun?"

"Sort of…" Yukiteru answered uncertainly. "It's like a glitch, isn't it?"

"It's a distortion in the output of a program due to it having nonsensical or faulty code somewhere down the line. Now, it is my understanding that the system largely regulates itself… the Akashic Records conducts regular sweeps for bugs and corrects them. But the Records are also prone to fault themselves. It's entirely possible for a bug to go undetected… Especially if someone's actively trying to ensure just that."

"S-so… what exactly are you saying?"

Akise looked at Yukiteru apologetically. "Sorry. I got a little ahead of my explanation. But what I'm saying is that the pocket dimension in this warehouse exists as a natural bug, a flaw, in the system's design. It wasn't created on purpose, so my reckoning is that just anybody could come along and exploit it for their own use."

At this point the two of them had reached the outer perimeter of the warehouse. The rust-patched walls of corrugated iron slanted above them. Akise appeared to take a deep breath before he continued speaking.

"And now, we'll see if I'm right."

His hand reached out, curled into a fist, and rapped once, twice, three times against the metallic wall. The sound vibrated up and down the structure.

A couple of prolonged seconds passed before the ground abruptly began to shake, the noise almost drowning out the static buzz of Yukiteru's phone. The noirette yelped in his struggle to stay upright, until Akise's supportive arm tightened around his body, pulling him in close. Yukiteru's breath hitched.

Darkness. The sensation of falling. Impossible wind, ripping through his hair like desperate claws, almost yanking his hat off. And then –

Yukiteru opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that they seemed to be, inexplicably, _inside_ the warehouse. Storage crates were stacked up all around them. A walkway, suspended between high beams, glittered above them in the dying light of the sun. And upon that walkway, two silhouettes perched, crowlike, their facial details obscured in shadow.

 _Are those two…?_ he wondered, but never finished the thought.

"Mikami-san and Ikusaba-san." Akise's voice, from immediately to Yukiteru's left. Glancing over, the noirette saw that the Regulator still had his arm firmly wrapped around him. "I apologise for the intrusion –"

"Well, if it isn't motherfucking Akise Aru," a deep, guttural masculine voice emanated from overhead. "The lily-livered bastard who ran away from Deus, all because he couldn't lift a finger to protect the one he loved." There was a profound bitterness to his voice that cut sharp; even though he wasn't the recipient, Yukiteru felt stung.

Akise chuckled in his usual unruffled fashion. "You're still hung up on that, I see."

"Of course I'm still hung up on it!" the other man roared. He leant over the railing of the walkway, causing light to splash onto his features. Yukiteru immediately recognised the spiralling pompadour and rage-tightened features of Marco Ikusaba.

"Any time a man fails to protect his lover, I can't forgive it," Marco growled. A harsh digital glow in his hands quickly materialised into a gleaming pistol. "And I don't know why you came here, but you better scram before I send you back to the Akashic Records myself!"

Yukiteru cringed. _This really isn't getting off to a good start…_

Akise had said that they would be dealing with something unpredictable, but even so, Yukiteru didn't quite imagine _this…_

"W-wait!" he blurted, figuring that the only way out of this situation was to use their one trump card. "I… I have a message for you two! From Ueshita Kamado-san!"

"Who the fuck are you?!" Marco demanded, but the woman beside him cut in before Yukiteru could answer.

"Ueshita Kamado is dead." The words were spoken in a tone of barely concealed grief. Suspicion was evident in the violet eyes of Ai Mikami.

"Y-yes. I know that," Yukiteru stammered, still painfully aware of Marco's pistol. "We were there when Ueshita-san died. She gave us the message just before… I… I think she thought we could be helpful to you…"

"Helpful!? To us?!" Marco yelled incredulously, brandishing his pistol, but Ai laid a hand on his shoulder, instantly stopping him.

"Marco, I think we should hear them out." Her voice was heavy. "If it really is a message from Mother Kamado, we owe it to her."

Marco reluctantly lowered his weapon. In a gruff voice, he murmured his affirmation: "Okay."

The two immediately teleported to the ground. Yukiteru fumbled with his phone, bringing up Kamado's message on the screen, before holding out the device.

Marco snatched it roughly from the Subject's outstretched hand. A few moments of tense silence passed as the two Regulators read over the message they had been given. Marco gritted his teeth, and Ai wiped a solitary tear from her eye.

"Yeah… there's no doubt that these are Mother's words," Marco sniffed. "But my question is, how'd you punks get them?" The rage was still evident in the brawler's voice, though it was now subdued.

The suspicion in Ai's eyes hadn't quite lifted, however. "You said that you were there when she died, didn't you?"

"Y-yes," Yukiteru garbled desperately. "Gasai Yuno attacked the orphanage out of the blue. I'm… I'm sorry, but there was really nothing we could do –"

"Don't give me that crap!" Yukiteru flinched as Marco's hand shot out to grab his collar and lift him, dangling pathetically, into the air. "You could have saved her! That albino bastard was with you, wasn't he? Surely he could've stopped Gasai Yuno in her tracks…" Marco's blazing eyes turned towards Akise. "…Right?!"

Akise's face was placid. He gave Yukiteru a reassuring glance as he stepped forward.

"Ikusaba-san… if I recall correctly, you are the one who said that I should be taking more measures to ensure the safety of the one I love."

"W-What's that got to do with anything?" Marco spluttered.

Akise sighed softly. "Well… let me put it this way. Occasionally, it happens that you must choose one thing over another. Even in this artificial world, we are plagued by such decisions. For example, you, Ikusaba-san, would choose to protect Mikami-san over anyone else." He turned to Ai. "And presumably the same goes for you, Mikami-san?"

Ai nodded hesitantly. "Well… yes, that's true. I love Marco more than anything. But still…" Her voice abruptly hardened. "You owed Mother Kamado for a previous debt, didn't you? But instead of helping her, you merely stood aside for your own selfish reasons."

Yukiteru could feel Marco's hand trembling with ire. "Y-you have no right to be here," he snarled, fury fracturing his words, "so get out!"

As if to drive his point home, Marco threw Yukiteru. For a brief moment, the noirette felt the raw terror of flight. He gasped, bracing himself for the ground impact – only for him to collide with something soft that was definitely _not_ the concrete floor of the warehouse.

He felt a warm body support itself against him, and he realised that Akise had caught him before he could fall.

"Tell me, Ikusaba-san, Mikami-san." Yukiteru could feel the vibrations of Akise's words pulsing in his throat. "Do you seek vengeance against Deus for killing Ueshita-san?"

That notion gave the Regulator double-team pause. They shared a glance before Ai answered.

"Well… we were pursuing Deus even before Mother was killed. But I suppose this gives us even more of a reason to bring him down…" Her voice cracked with bitterness. "Disposing of an innocent woman… our mother… like that… She never hurt anyone, Subject or Regulator. She only ever helped out those around her."

"If that's how you feel, then we share a common enemy." Akise shifted beneath Yukiteru as his body straightened up. "Ueshita-san said as much in her message."

Marco glanced at Yukiteru's phone, which was still clasped in one of his calloused, battleworn hands. "Yeah, she does say that," he muttered, "but why does she seem so convinced that you'll give us any more help than we can already get?"

"Because of him." Akise affectionately patted Yukiteru's head, causing the noirette to blush at the contact. "Amano Yukiteru-kun here is a Subject, meaning he's not a product of the system. If we could somehow disconnect him from the system, he would be able to return to his body in the outside world and shut down Deus's operations once and for all. Because let's face it – as long as we're still in this world of Deus's creation, all we can do is run and hide."

Yukiteru's blush deepened at that proclamation. _Does… does Akise-kun seriously think I'm capable of all that…?_

"And you think _that_ will forgive your failure to protect Mother when she needed it most?" Marco growled. "And that's if what you're saying is even possible –"

"I am certain that it is possible," Akise interrupted, his words fortified by resolve. "If we combine our expertise and knowledge we may be able to make it. That, I believe, was Ueshita-san's final wish."

Marco opened his mouth to ready a retort, but Ai stopped him before he could.

"It looks as if you've got a plan, rogue." A bitter-tinged smile touched Ai's lips. "Well, I trust Mother. I don't think she would send them to us if she didn't think they would be helpful. And… as much as I hate to admit it, you're right. I don't think she would want us to squabble over her death." She turned to her lover. "What do you think, Marco?"

The brawler glared at Akise wordlessly. His fists clenched and unclenched in the tense silence that followed.

"Don't lose sight of the bigger picture here," Ai pressed. "Marco… I think we should do this, for Mother's sake."

Another silence. The seconds passed by like minutes.

"To be honest, I don't really like the idea of teaming up with _him_ …" he uttered in a low growl, eyes glowering. "But I'll do it. For Mother Kamado."

Ai giggled. "Thank you for agreeing with me, Marco!" she proclaimed brightly. "You know you've made the right choice!"

A light blush coloured Marco's cheeks. "H-hey! As if I would choose anything else!" he protested.

Yukiteru blinked at this sudden transformation of attitude. _Are these two really the same people as before?_

However, in the next moment, Marco had already reverted back into short-fused suspicion. He stared levelly at Akise. "But if you, rogue, give us just the smallest reason not to trust you, I'll rip you apart. Understand?!"

Akise nodded. "I understand."

"Hmph. Well, now that we're allies, I suppose we should welcome you into our home," Marco grunted. "It's… well, it's modest, but you brought this on yourselves, so don't you dare complain."

Akise chuckled. "That's alright. I'm sure we'll get by."

He patted Yukiteru's head again, and the noirette couldn't help but share the same conviction in Akise's words as he sighed deeply in relief.

 _Yeah. We'll get by, I'm sure._

* * *

"Sorry, Amano-kun, but this is all we really have."

Ai placed a steaming pot of instant ramen in front of Yukiteru. The warm, substantial scent almost assaulted his nostrils as he realised he hadn't eaten since the fiasco with Houjou Reisuke at the amusement park.

The noirette thanked Ai graciously and slurped down the entire pot in less than sixty seconds. "I needed that," he muttered breathlessly after he had finished, wiping off the soy sauce that had accumulated on his chin.

Akise smiled warmly over at Yukiteru, and the Subject returned the gesture. A tranquil silence fell between the four of them.

They were seated on what passed for a table and benches somewhere near the centre of the warehouse. Crates were arranged in haphazard stacks and towers all around them. The table was laced with dust and unidentifiable stains, and the wood was rough-hewn, splintering at the edges. But Yukiteru couldn't remember the last time he had felt so comfortable; he was merely glad that, at long last, he had found a place where he could rest without fear.

Akise's hand began to fondly stroke the top of Yukiteru's head, lightly scrunching his hair through his hat. The noirette rested his chin on his arms and sighed contentedly.

It was a while before the albino Regulator broke the silence. "Now that we're allies, I think there are a few things that need to be laid straight between us." He glanced from Ai to Marco in turn. "It's not just about setting aside your prejudices – I need to know that I can place my full trust in you two."

Marco's eyes narrowed. "What are you implying? You think we're not trustworthy or somethin'?"

"No, nothing like that," Akise interjected quickly. "It would just… help matters if you could tell me a few things about your current standing."

"You mean…" Ai glanced furtively at Marco before turning back to the albino. "About the person we take orders from?"

Yukiteru frowned over at Ai. "Huh? But I thought you two were rogues –"

"Well. Yes, technically. From Deus's point of view, at least," Ai elaborated. "But… even though it _is_ true that all the Regulators, including Marco and I, were created by and for the purpose of serving Deus…" Her slender fingers twitched anxiously, and she seemed to lean in closer towards them as though concerned that she was being overheard. "…You see, there is something that Deus never told us. He made us think that the system has only one Administrator… but we now know of at least one other."

Yukiteru blinked at this novel revelation, before stealing a glance over at Akise. The Regulator gazed on with a look of pure intrigue – it seemed this information was news to him, as well.

"I thought something like that might be the case," Akise admitted. "I had to wonder why Ueshita-san specifically mentioned that you didn't share our loyalties, but at the same time were opposed to Deus."

"Yes." Ai looked down at her hands and took a deep breath, in and out, before continuing. "The second Administrator is known as John Bacchus. I can't say I know an awful lot about him… Marco and I have only spoken to him directly twice before now, though I think Mother Kamado might have been a lot closer to him. But although he is supposed to be working alongside Deus, he has his own personal, opposing plans for the Operation."

"And what might these plans be?" probed Akise. "Can you tell us?"

Ai averted her gaze. "…Sorry, but I can't. We're under oath. But…" The resolve in her violet irises hardened, intensifying. "What I _can_ tell you is that Deus is corrupt. He may have begun the Operation with good intentions, but… he's taken it a step too far. His plan still has yet to enter its second phase, but Bacchus has a plan to stop him and return the Operation to its original purpose. All this time, Bacchus has outwardly gone along with Deus's scheme, whilst secretly employing Regulators to assist him from within."

"Those Regulators are me, Ai and Mother, along with her other children," Marco added. "I don't think there's anyone else."

"I see." Akise nodded. "But if I may ask, how did you first find out about this John Bacchus?"

The two lovers shared another conspiratorial look before addressing their guests. Once again, it was Ai who answered.

"We received a Summons a while back. At the time, we were just ordinary Regulators, naïve and unaware of the true situation, so we just assumed it was Deus, calling us for a meeting at Causality Cathedral. But when we got there…"

"…there was some old geezer sittin' in Deus's throne," Marco picked up without missing a beat. "Naturally, we demanded to know who the hell he thought he was, and why none of the other Regulators had turned up. That's when he explained everythin' to us. Without even once holdin' back. Either he was desperate, or he was utterly convinced he could trust us." Marco shrugged. "And hell, who was I to say no?"

Ai chuckled. "Marco, the way you say it makes it seem so arbitrary. To be honest, it really shocked me… When I first saw him, I thought that a Subject had somehow managed to sneak into the Cathedral."

"You thought he was a Subject…?" Akise mused. "Then, presumably, his system avatar looked like an ordinary person."

Marco nodded. "Yeah. Just an old codger, sittin' up there on Deus's fancy gigantic throne. Like it was nothing. If I'm honest, I had trouble believing he was really an Administrator. There was nothin' powerful or fancy or awe-defying about him; he didn't wear chunky robes or a crown or any of that shit. I… I think that he might even have been straight-up showing us his real-life appearance…" Marco grinned, his molars gleaming in the fading sunlight. "I tell ya, when a guy does something like that, that's how you know he's an honest fella."

"Hmm." Akise rubbed his chin. "Well, I can't really make an evaluation on this John Bacchus without ever meeting him, but I suppose I have no objection to him as long as he doesn't interfere with our ultimate goal."

Marco raised one slanted eyebrow. "Which is?"

"To disconnect Yukiteru-kun from the system." Akise's voice contained no doubt. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but it seems Deus has some sort of plan for him that concerns his phone diary. And I will do anything in my power to stop that plan." He sighed. "But he's going to need to get out of here first. The longer he stays, the more danger he'll fall into."

A small smile creased Yukiteru's lips at the deep concern in Akise's voice. Until now, he hadn't really had the chance to truly consolidate how he felt about Akise, but he realised he should be grateful for the albino's presence. He didn't want to imagine what sort of state he'd be in now if Akise hadn't stepped in to protect him.

"Phone diary?" Ai repeated, bemused. "No, I don't think Bacchus has any interest in that. All he wants is to keep the Operation running until its completion, so as long as you don't intend to shut the entire system down, he won't make any moves against you."

"What's this bullshit about a phone diary though?" Marco demanded, peering over at Yukiteru.

The noirette flinched under the harsh gaze. "U-um… My phone is… uh, it can tell the future. Or at least, some things about the future…"

Marco blinked. "Really? Huh. Well, I suppose I can see why some folks would find that kinda stuff useful, though personally…" He smiled over at Ai. "I don't need to know my future as long as I'm with her."

Ai blushed, giggling like a schoolgirl in a shoujo manga. "Oh, shut up, Marco!" she chortled, almost hysterically, as her boyfriend began to break out into a sweat. "You don't need to say those sorts of things to me~!"

Marco pouted. "You seem to be enjoying it, though," he grunted.

Akise and Yukiteru shared a glance and a chuckle. _Couples, eh?_

After regaining her former demeanour of professionalism, Ai stood up smartly and addressed Yukiteru. "Well, Amano-kun, it's getting late. I think you should get some rest, and then we can coordinate ourselves in the morning. We have a lot to work out between us…" She nodded towards Marco.

The brawler stood up, scratching at the back of his neck. "Yeah. Me and Ai have a job to do, but we'll be back before sunrise if it all goes well." He folded his arms pugnaciously. "I'm leaving the warehouse in _your_ hands, rogue. And I swear, you mess one fucking thing up and I'll kill you with my own two hands."

The tension in Marco's voice suggested that he meant the threat, but Akise responded only by emitting one of his signature chuckles as he bid the two lovers farewell. The pair linked arms as they left, digits spiralling around them in a synchrony of teleportation.

"Well then, Yukiteru-kun." Akise stood, his body framed by the last struggling rays of sunlight as the sky outside bled from orange into purple. "Wait right there, and I'll see if I can get a futon ready for you."

The Regulator walked over to a somewhat sheltered corner; a gap nestled between two crates, just below one of the warehouse's high windows. Akise held his hand out over the concrete, his fingers splayed wide. Yukiteru watched as the floor rippled and distorted dramatically as lines of code rewrote themselves, before reforming into a large and inviting futon covered by a cobalt blanket.

"Thanks, Akise-kun!" Yukiteru beamed as he tore his shoes off and jumped gratefully into the blanket. He sighed, drowsiness already creeping up his limbs and accumulating on his eyelids.

"Good night, Yukiteru-kun." The fond sentiment was followed by the dull _thud_ of boots against the concrete.

Yukiteru immediately opened his eyes and sat up. "Akise-kun… Where are you going?"

Akise paused and turned to face him, his carmine eyes blinking in what seemed to be surprise. "I'm not going anywhere, Yukiteru-kun."

"But…" Yukiteru began, but soon broke off. He had spoken earlier without thinking, without even contemplating exactly _why_ he had asked that question. "Er…"

But… what? What was the reason for his objection to Akise leaving his bedside?

 _But… it's too big in here for just one person._

 _But… won't you be uncomfortable out there?_

 _But… I want to hold you._

The last one caused a bout of colour to burst onto Yukiteru's cheeks. Had… had he really just thought that, or…?

Akise took a step closer, and the noirette didn't miss that there was a slight pink tinge running beneath the Regulator's pale cheeks as well.

"Are you… inviting me in?" The albino sounded doubtful.

"Y-yeah. I guess I am." Yukiteru chuckled awkwardly.

Akise's expression seemed to relax somewhat. "I see," he murmured, in a tone laced with relief… as well as something akin to gratitude.

Yukiteru watched attentively as Akise gently – gracefully, almost – pulled off his boots and slid into the futon next to him. A warm shoulder bumped against the noirette's own, and he felt his face again flush at the contact.

 _W-what does this mean?_

The question skittered about in his mind aimlessly for a few moments before fading entirely.

Yukiteru turned on his side to face Akise. As his gaze connected with the Regulator's soft, vivid, cerise orbs, he attempted to think of something to say, but he couldn't string more than three words together before they quickly disappeared into the swirling, damask-coloured fog surrounding Akise's eyes.

Akise simply lay there, watching him patiently with a fond smile.

Yukiteru's eyes gradually broke contact and shifted a few centimetres downward, resting on the soft curvature of Akise's lips. His own mouth twitched as a sudden desire welled up inside of him.

Vague, half-coherent thoughts and ideas circulated in a rapid storm of cerebral noise, but then a single, clear sentence cut through them all.

 _I don't care._

Yukiteru shifted forward, leaning in to press his lips clumsily against Akise's. The Regulator immediately reacted – but not by pushing him away. Instead, the albino adjusted his grip on Yukiteru, wrapping his arms firmly around his back and pulling him closer into the kiss. The noirette was aware of his cheeks burning, his heart pounding, but it was all just background noise.

The albino continued to kiss him, pausing only for brief intervals to allow Yukiteru time to catch his breath, but it all seemed unnecessary – each time Akise pulled back from the connection, the noirette would simply lean back in to eagerly close the space that separated them.

Akise began gently stroking Yukiteru's back, his hands gradually slipping between the folds of his shirt. The noirette hummed in pleasure at the sensual touch and, aware that his arms were flailing about somewhat aimlessly, wrapped them firmly around Akise's neck and pressed himself closer against the body next to him, interlocking them together like a jigsaw.

Akise abruptly disconnected from the kiss before just as quickly reconnecting to Yukiteru's cheek, then his jaw, then his neck. His lips rested above Yukiteru's pulsating jugular for a moment before pulling back, his eyes fixed on the shining cobalt eyes of the boy in front of him.

"Yukiteru…" His voice had an edge of breathlessness to it, but underneath that was the resounding echo of supressed euphoria. "Do you want to go any further than this?"

It took a full second for Yukiteru to understand what Akise meant by that. "U-um," he stammered, convinced that his face must be dripping like molten lava by now, "I'm… I… I'm not sure…"

It was the honest truth. At this point, he really wasn't sure what he wanted. It had all come crashing down upon him so suddenly – just like everything else that had elapsed during the past few days.

To his relief, Akise didn't seem disappointed. He merely smiled and settled himself against Yukiteru, ensuring that the noirette was comfortable.

Yukiteru's arms moved down from Akise's neck to his waist and grasped as tightly as he could. He had never imagined the body of another person could be so _warm_ , and he never wanted to let it go.

 _I don't want to leave you._

It was at that point that a sudden thought occurred to him.

"Akise…" He looked up into the face of the boy he loved, of the Regulator whose soft white locks practically glowed in the pale moonlight. "You said you would get me out of this world, didn't you?"

"Yes." Akise's eyes shone with conviction.

"Well… how are _you_ going to leave? I mean, you've said before that you're 'an integral part of the system' or something like that…"

Akise hummed lightly as he chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Yukiteru. I'll find a way to do just that. No system exists without loopholes, after all."

Satisfied, Yukiteru nodded and snuggled back in against Akise.

 _Someday, we'll leave this world. Together._

And that day, he was sure, was getting closer.


	9. Chapter 9: Hypnagogic Whispers

**Hello, hello, hello! I apologise (once again) for the wait, but I hope you feel it was worth it; I have two chapters here for you to enjoy. Yes. Two entire chapters! Wahey.**

 **Granted, this first chapter is more of an exposition/dialogue-heavy chapter, but the second one is a bit more action-packed, so hopefully that'll compensate a little. Please feel free to let me know what you think of each of them... I often feel that I'm writing technobabble that serves more to overly complicate the plot rather than explain things. Is that how it comes off to you guys as well? Please let me know either way. I'm well aware that there are fair criticisms that can be made of this story.**

 **In other news, yes, chapter eleven is definitely a realistic possibility, but don't expect anything until August... I'll be on holiday abroad in places that are unlikely to have Wi-Fi (yes, it's that much of an adventure) for three weeks. So yeah, sorry about that, but I should be working on the eleventh chapter from the moment I get back! ...Well, more or less, anyway.**

 **See you then!~**

 **-Le Fez-Wearing Husky**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine: Hypnagogic Whispers**

 _"_ _Akise… you're not going to leave me, are you?"_

As a Regulator, Akise Aru had no need for sleep.

And yet, there was no other word that could describe accurately what he was seeing, hearing, feeling in that moment.

There was no other possibility; he had to be dreaming.

He felt himself chuckle internally. _Programming an AI with the ability to dream? I wonder if you do this deliberately to confuse me, Deus._

From Akise's point of view, there was no need for a programmer to bestow such powers on an ersatz mind destined for servitude. What was Deus hoping to gain from AI that could not only see and think, but also feel, love, and dream…?

Akise supposed that simply thinking about it was unlikely to get him closer to the answer, so he decided to focus on the so-called dream in question.

His surroundings were achingly familiar. The nondescript, yet homely apartment was painfully tranquil. Every detail seemed to stab straight through Akise's heart; the low table, upon which sat a vase bursting with ivory-coloured roses; the squat TV surrounded by a sea of DVD boxsets and video games.

But nothing was more torturous than the pair of eyes that settled on Akise's own from across the room; bright and trusting, a light - almost golden - brown in colour.

 _"_ _You said we'd get out of here… together."_

 _"_ _You meant that, right?"_

 _"_ _Come on! Let's… let's just get out of here already, Akise!"_

 _"…_ _I love you, Akise."_

Jovial. Hesitant. Hopeful. Overlapping memories and sensations poured out of those eyes and smothered Akise.

 _This is wrong. That's not how you should be looking at me. That's not how you should think of me._

As if in response, the room suddenly distorted, twisting over itself at a sickening angle to form the image of something so horrendously grotesque that Akise – Akise, who never failed to retain his composure – found he could not look directly at it.

It. _Them._ Their body was still soft and residually warm, still oozing out the final remnants of life – but their eyes had already frozen, fixed in position, statue-like. Those petrified hazel orbs were brimming with the same trust they had always held; the same conviction, the same passion, even as they lay dying.

The eyes said it all. They had never blamed Akise for anything.

Akise felt all the motion drain out of his limbs and allowed his body to slump to the floor. He didn't feel the rapidly cooling blood lap against his knees. He didn't register the metallic stench of blood that permeated the room. He felt nothing. It was as though his entire body – no, his entire mind – had gone completely numb.

A void had opened inside him, pulling all sensation beyond its event horizon, and obliterating it, byte by byte, bit by bit. Akise was left only with an internal rawness, a sense of despair so profound that he failed to acknowledge that anything else existed.

Familiar voices echoed, some mocking and triumphant, others bitter and resentful.

 _"_ _Seriously, Akise-niisan! You have got to be the most un-elite of the un-elite – failing to even protect a single Subject. That's gotta be pretty pathetic, right?"_

 _"_ _Any man who fails to protect the one he loves… who fails to stand by their side… isn't worthy of living!"_

They were the voices of Houjou Reisuke and Marco Ikusaba. Well, in actuality, he knew that they were psychological manifestations of his own self-hatred… but even so, they were real words that had been spoken. Words that were truths. Weapons. Daggers.

Akise looked up and saw a blueness.

In the profound, all-encompassing cobalt, he found the same unquestioning faithfulness that had previously been coloured hazel.

And it was dead.

* * *

 **[Warehouse 4, Sakurami City Industrial Block]**

Akise's eyes snapped open in pale darkness, and he immediately determined the time as 4:05 A.M., just under an hour before dawn.

He gently – and reluctantly – disentangled himself from Yukiteru, so as to avoid waking the noirette up in the process. He sat up and stared into the receding shadows of the warehouse, deep in thought.

Ai and Marco had not yet returned. He decided that was no cause for alarm; they had said before sunrise, but there was still a fifty-five minute window until nighttime officially ended.

He sighed, his thoughts instead swinging back to what he had just perceived. His… _dream._ The word felt alien, and yet it was the only one that made sense.

 _How did the time pass so quickly?_ Akise had been aware of holding Yukiteru's slumbering form for almost two hours before… before… what, exactly? At that point, his memory hit a blank wall. The transition from there to his visualisation of that dreaded apartment had been seamless. And whilst he was trapped in his stupor, he had seemingly lost all external awareness.

Akise knew all about the biological mechanisms of Subjects, including sleep. He knew that, during an unconscious state, the human brain didn't register the passing of time as it typically would whilst conscious. Which, he reflected, was eerily similar to what the albino himself had experienced.

 _Is this some sort of bug, or…_ He supposed it was possible. After all, it was the actions of Ai and Marco that had kept the warehouse pocket-dimension undetected as a bug for so long. Perhaps other bugs could crop up in such a place, slipping between the cracks and the shadows as though to take refuge from the Akashic Records' all-seeing eye.

 _But even if that were the case… it's truly bizarre._ And for it to suddenly manifest _now_ of all times, especially taking into account his conversation with Yukiteru last night – well, that made Akise very suspicious.

And so he found himself harking back to his original assumption. Could Deus really have intentionally plugged his core program with the ability to dream? Why would he have done such a thing?

Akise spent the rest of the hour attempting to rationalise that notion, but whatever logic he employed, he couldn't find an answer that made sense. The first streaks of dawn sunlight were cresting the windows as Ai and Marco returned.

Akise looked up towards them. "Presumably this escapade of yours was a success," he remarked, noticing the wearied but otherwise unharmed features of the two Regulators' faces.

Marco nodded curtly. "Yeah…" He trailed off, his eyes wavering between Akise and the slumbering Yukiteru, lying sprawled in the futon just adjacent to the albino.

The brawler said nothing, though the look on his face registered definite surprise.

Akise almost chuckled. Even though he barely knew Marco, he found the man incredibly easy to read. He had discerned at a glance that Marco was one of the Regulators who were less adept at concealing their true emotions. Ai was a lot better at it, though; perhaps she provided some form of compensation.

Marco's narrowed eyes flashed threateningly before turning back to Ai. Akise immediately decoded the glance: _"You don't deserve a second chance, and you're a fucking lucky bastard to have been given one. So don't fuck up. If you do, I'll kill you."_

Akise held back a sigh. "I'll kill you" always cropped up somewhere whenever he interacted directly with Marco. He could tell the brawler meant the threat, but also sensed that he would be somewhat reluctant to carry it out.

The albino felt the blanket shift slightly, and peered over at the stirring body of Yukiteru. It seemed the slight commotion kicked up by the double team's return had awoken the noirette.

Akise couldn't help but smile fondly. "Good morning, Yukiteru."

"Mmm," Yukiteru mumbled incoherently as his eyes flickered open, closed, then open again. He groaned and shielded his eyes from the morning glare with his left arm.

"Good… morning," he muttered sleepily.

He reached out rather clumsily and managed to latch onto Akise's arm. The Regulator understood his wordless request immediately.

Sinking back down beneath the covers, Akise embraced Yukiteru and sifted his fingers through the exposed hairs on the back of the noirette's neck. He briefly kissed him, smiling as the Subject settled against his body.

Yukiteru returned the expression drowsily. His eyes opened again, just a crack; but to Akise, that small sliver of cobalt seemed to swallow the entire world.

At the end of Akise's dream, the eyes that had once been hazel had become this same shade of blue. Undoubtedly, that was meant to represent _Yukiteru's_ prospective death, of mistakes repeating themselves.

He had made a promise. He wasn't going to let it happen a second time. And yet…

 _Once I find a way to disconnect him from this world… will I be repeating that mistake? Will I be sending him to the gallows?_

After all, Akise's knowledge of the outside world was based entirely on assumptions, nothing more. Could he really say with any conviction that what lay beyond the system was any less horrifying than what lay within it?

No. Of course he couldn't.

 _But if I could just leave the system_ with _him…_

He cut off that train of thought before it could continue. It was pointless to think about impossibilities.

Because it _was_ impossible. His source code was stored in the Akashic Records, an integral part of the system. He could never leave, and if he tried, the result would most likely be automatic total deletion anyway.

 _"_ _I'll find a way to do just that. No system exists without loopholes, after all."_

Akise smiled wanly. It was the single biggest lie he had ever told. And Yukiteru was the second person he had told it to.

The noirette sat up slowly, rubbing at his eyelids. He took in his surroundings slowly, almost detachedly, as though only just noticing them for the first time. His gaze switched to Akise, his dark eyebrows arched in confusion.

"Where are we, Akise…?"

"The warehouse, remember? We went to search for Ai Mikami and Marco Ikusaba in the industrial block, and we found them here." Akise did not miss the fact that Yukiteru had dropped his usual honorific. It filled him with an odd yet pleasing sense of elation.

"Oh, yeah…" Yukiteru mumbled groggily, wiping absent-mindedly at his eyes once again. "Are they back yet…?"

"Good morning, Amano-kun!" Ai stepped in cheerily at that point, as though to confirm that she and Marco had indeed returned. "I don't have much in the way of breakfast, but…" She rummaged through the pockets of her skinny jeans. "…I did manage to pick this up after we had finished our job."

She proffered a squat chocolate bar. Yukiteru accepted and ate it gratefully, muttering a hasty "Thank you" as he tore open the wrapper.

Akise smiled. "It's rather unfortunate that our Ability doesn't let us mass-produce food in the same way as everything else."

Ai peered at him quizzically. "I suppose feeding Subjects is one thing, but why else would you need to do that? Regulators don't need to eat, so producing food would just be an extra strain on the system."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," agreed Akise. "But, Mikami-san… if you do ever get a chance, try some street food. It's… odd, but surprisingly satisfying."

Ai chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind."

At that point, Marco, who was seated pugnaciously at the table behind Ai, interjected. "Hey, we didn't make an alliance with you punks so you could talk bullshit to my girlfriend," he grunted irritably. "So get your punk asses over here so we can talk business."

Ai chuckled. "I don't mean to rush you, Akise-kun, but he _does_ have a point."

Akise nodded. "That's fine. The sun is already up. We should ideally work out our next move before it sets again."

The albino straightened out his body and manoeuvred out of the futon. Yukiteru followed, attempting and failing to suppress a yawn. The noirette leant sleepily on Akise's shoulder.

Once they were all seated, Yukiteru and Akise facing across from Ai and Marco, the brawler began with a pointed question. "So. You punks want to get out of here, right? And you think we can help with that?"

"We were hoping, yes," Akise answered.

Marco shifted, his lips pulling back in a grimace. "For serious?" His frown deepened as he observed the conviction in Akise's gaze. "Ugh. I guess you really are dead-set on escaping with that pathetic boyfriend of yours." His eyes shifted momentarily onto Yukiteru.

The noirette blushed copiously in embarrassment, though whether that was over being labelled as pathetic or as Akise's boyfriend remained unclear.

Akise draped a protective arm around Yukiteru, adjusting his grip as the noirette's shoulders relaxed. "Yes," he replied simply. "Are you suggesting that such a venture is impossible, or otherwise pointless?"

Marco visibly ground his teeth together. "I'm _suggesting_ what the fuck you expect us to do about it."

Ai rubbed her chin, clearly deep in thought. "Well, there has to be _some_ reason Mother Kamado sent you to us…" She glanced between them. "It's true that we don't really know anything about a potential route out of the system." She sighed. "Well, let's focus on the common ground we have for now. We both want to bring down Deus for more or less the same reason. So…" She glanced momentarily at Marco.

Marco folded his arms indignantly but nodded his assent. "Yeah. I think we'd best tell them."

Ai's expression suddenly tightened, becoming severe and businesslike. "During our outing, we managed to find a way to infiltrate Causality Cathedral."

Akise turned his full attention on the violet-haired Regulator. _Now_ this _is an interesting development indeed._ "How long do you think it'll be viable for?"

"I don't know," Ai admitted. "It was probably a random bug, and it looks like we just happened to find it before the Akashic Records did. Still… nowhere in the system is more protected than Causality Cathedral, so even if we keep putting protection encryptions over it, it'll be detected eventually."

"I see." Akise mulled the concept over for a moment. Naturally, it would be best for them to check it out immediately, but the Cathedral was not a place that anyone could recklessly charge into. "Which part of the Cathedral does this path connect to?"

"The chamber to the left and behind the throne room," Ai replied.

Akise nodded. He was familiar with the Cathedral's layout; the chamber Ai had mentioned was the default entrance for Regulators who teleported into the Cathedral. Of course, having been flagged as rogues, neither he, Ai nor Marco could enter via teleportation without being obliterated. The same applied for the other well-known entrance to the Cathedral, which connected directly to the Akashic Records.

But this new route seemed to hold promise. If this bug allowed them to bypass the security encryptions, they could enter the Cathedral undetected. This bug was, effectively, the system's blindspot.

"That's not the end of it, of course," Akise mused. "Causality Cathedral is full of highly sophisticated Phagocytes."

"Phagocytes?" repeated Yukiteru questioningly.

"They are… well, they're sort of like the system's police force," Akise explained. "They oversee things, make judgments, and act according to the discretion of the Akashic Records. Subjects can't see them… well, not usually, anyway. But the ones in Causality Cathedral are a little different… They have to be, really. The Cathedral is a place where all sorts of confidential information is stored. It would probably be a huge breakthrough if we got our hands on any of it, but…"

Phagocytes were in fact the physical agents of the Akashic Records. They roamed the system as its bug-hunters, rogue-sweepers, spies and law enforcers. They were generally thought of as invisible, background details – but it was possible for a Regulator to sense and perceive them, if they tried hard enough. Usually insectoid in appearance, they crawled, unseen, through ubiquitous alleyways and chasms. They went everywhere that permitted them; only special security encryptions kept them at bay, encryptions that Akise had become well versed in through his years as a rogue Regulator.

There was, however, a hierarchy amongst Phagocytes. The only ones in the main system were the small, almost undetectable grunts who patrolled relentlessly, carrying out the bulk of the Records' dirty work. But the ones in Casuality Cathedral were different.

They were guards, sentinels. They were rumoured to be more or less indestructible (not that Akise could talk; he had yet to pick a fight with one). And they were the reason he had steered clear of the Cathedral since he had begun deviating from Deus's orders.

"That's true," Ai acknowledged. "But it's possible to avoid them if we use the Ability to disguise our location."

Marco clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Yeah, and I ain't afraid to fight 'em if we do end up gettin' caught."

"Are you sure?" Akise frowned, doubtful. "From what I know of them they're not easily fooled, and they're protected by the system. Avoiding detection or taking them down won't be easy."

"We're sure," the two Regulators immediately replied, in unison. The conviction on their faces was as steadfast as reinforced steel.

Akise smiled to himself. _I suppose those two believe they can do anything as long as they're together._ The power of emotional attachment was not something that could be taken lightly by Deus – or anyone, for that matter. The albino reflected that he should be grateful those two happened to be his allies rather than his enemies.

"But what about Yukiteru?" Akise pointed out. "He's a Subject. Do you think he'd be able to enter the Cathedral through the bypass without setting off the alarm?"

It was as though Marco's corneas had frosted over in that instant. "Well, there's only one way to find out," he muttered, brusque in his indifference.

The noirette paled. "A-Akise," he mumbled, "I… I don't want to be a burden to you or anyone else. I'll just stay here…"

Akise tightened his grip on Yukiteru. "If that's the case, then I'll stay here with you."

It was a counterproductive decision, he knew. Simply relying on secondhand information from Ai and Marco wasn't really going to get them anywhere. He had to be certain; and to do that he had to see it for himself. But he was starkly aware of the fact that he'd knowingly be putting Yukiteru in more danger than he'd ever been in before.

He didn't know a lot about the Cathedral's Phagocytes, he would admit. But he could tell from his momentary encounters with them at meetings during his brief initial months of loyalty that they were ruthless, indiscriminate entities. They possessed no emotional faculties whatsoever. And if they were to detect a foreign presence, such as a Subject…

Akise had to forcibly dislodge the notion from his mind. He could, of course, simply leave Yukiteru here in the relative safety of the warehouse whilst he tagged along to Causality Cathedral. But he had already discarded that idea as a possible option.

Akise looked up to Ai and Marco just as the pair exchanged a glance.

"So… does that mean you're not coming after all?" Ai questioned.

Marco turned away and shifted in his seat, as though preparing to leave. "Fine by me. You can stay hidin' here like the cowardly little bitch you are."

Akise felt his insides tighten, but didn't allow that same tension to show on his face. You _were the one who called me out for failing to stay by my lover's side. And now, I'm apparently a coward for trying to correct my previous mistake._

Something shifted beside him. Akise, with mild surprise, looked up to see that Yukiteru had fully risen out of his seat.

"Akise isn't a coward!" he declared, his voice projecting powerfully from his chest, charged with anger and indignance. "He's just trying to protect me, the way anyone would!"

Marco glowered fixedly at Yukiteru. "You really think a rogue like that is capable of protecting anyone other than himself?"

Yukiteru flinched under his glare and averted his eyes submissively. "I… I guess I don't really know a lot about him," he admitted, avoiding Akise's concerned gaze. "But I do know that I can trust him. He's saved me from getting captured by Deus's Regulators twice now… and I'm sure he'd do it again."

Bolstering his nerves, the Subject pressed forward. "I… think I understand the situation here. If I enter this place, Causality Cathedral… then I might easily get captured or… worse. But I want to help. I owe it to Akise. And… I owe it to you two, as well." He glanced between Ai and Marco shyly. "You formed an alliance with us to help stop Deus. Akise said I might be the key to doing just that. And –" He hesitated for a second, biting his lip, before balling his fists and tensing his body in determination. "…I want to be able to do that. I want to help put an end to this war. I want to find out about all those secrets locked up in Causality Cathedral. I want to confront Deus Ex Machina myself, and…" He took a deep breath. "I think I can do all that, so long as you two and Akise are there."

The conviction in Yukiteru's voice struck Akise, as though physically. He stared at the boy, wondering if he should talk him out of it, tell him that he wasn't yet ready. But if that was what Yukiteru wanted, who was he to deny it? The noirette had spent all his time up until now running from danger, feeling powerless to stop it. And although Akise judged it as reckless, he also knew that this might well be Yukiteru's only chance to face danger head-on. To prove to everyone, including himself, that he was capable of sharing the burden.

 _And, of course, there's his unique attribute._ The Observer's Diary was something only Yukiteru could use, and it could prove to be indispensable in a place like Causality Cathedral.

Akise joined Yukiteru in standing up. "Are you sure about this, Yukiteru? I can't give any guarantees of your safety…"

Yukiteru hesitated before meeting the Regulator's gaze. "That… that doesn't matter. I mean… if you want to change the world, there's always going to be some risk involved, isn't there? …Or something like that, anyway." He laughed nervously.

Akise smiled back before turning towards their two allies. He distinctly reflected that this could be a pivotal moment. A point at which the decision he made would be cast in iron.

It wasn't something he could ever turn back on. He would have to live with its consequences with no hope of change.

So he expelled each of his doubts, one by one, and asked: "So, where exactly did you find this bypass?"

Ai's smile curved almost mischievously. "We'll show you."


	10. Chapter 10: A Double-Edged Sword

**Chapter Ten: A Double-Edged Sword**

 **[** **Sakurami Tower, 51F]**

"So… this is it, then, I presume?"

It didn't look like much, Akise had to admit. But he knew that was precisely the point.

 _In any case,_ Akise mused, _it seems as though our luck has held._ He could detect the faint, distorted presence of the bypass within the grainy pixels of the wall before him; outwardly invisible, but otherwise showing no signs of being tampered with.

"Is this really it?" Yukiteru murmured doubtfully, cocking his head to one side. Of course, as a Subject, he would be oblivious to such subtleties.

"Yes," Akise assured him with a smile. "I can't tell quite how far down we're supposed to go but…" The albino turned to Ai and Marco. "…I presume you two have it all mapped out?"

"More or less," Ai agreed. "We didn't follow the path down all the way though… just far enough to take a peek at what lay ahead."

"I see." So nothing was really definitive. Akise knew all too well that this world was rife with illusions. The double team couldn't be truly certain of what they had seen, and the looks on their faces only confirmed that fact.

Marco glared between the albino and the noirette in his usual impatient fashion. "So? Are we going or not? Or are you two lily-livered bastards just here to sightsee?"

"My apologies, Ikusaba-san." Even as he spoke, Akise found himself scanning the wide, circular expanse of Sakurami Tower's fifty-first floor, including the open-air observation decks that opened out to the west and east of the tower. A magnificent view of the entire city panned out beyond the metal railings, its detail lacking in no aspect but one. The faint odour of ersatz surrounded every building, undetected by all except those who were aware of the truth. However, those who knew could recognise Sakurami City's façade as immediately obvious. It was something in its nature, its demeanour… something unnatural, almost mechanical. Akise had a feeling that even Yukiteru registered this uncanny presence, or at least he did so subconsciously.

The albino turned his ruby gaze onto the Subject. "Yukiteru," he began, placing his hands solidly on said noirette's shoulders. The cobalt eyes watched him determinedly. They were eyes that didn't yet know what they were getting themselves into.

"I'll be with you every step of the way, don't you worry. But – just as a precautionary measure – take this, in order to defend yourself."

Within his hands he materialised a small, yet sharp, pocket knife and proffered it handle-first to Yukiteru. He'd had to alter its code slightly so that it could be wielded by a Subject, but it proved to be no big deal.

Yukiteru accepted the weapon somewhat hesitantly. He looked down at the blade in his hands as though it was some sort of alien entity. "I hope I won't have to use this," he murmured, smiling nervously as he pocketed the knife.

"So do I," Akise concurred. "Just stay right next to me." He faced the wall. "Alright. If everyone's ready, then let's go." He reached out to grasp Yukiteru's hand, tightening his grip as fingers responded to his own. Then, all at once, they jumped through the wall.

It was a sensation that only bordered on familiarity. As with his first step into Ai and Marco's hideout, there was a distinct sensation of falling, of gravity giving way beneath his feet and the synthetic wind grasping at his hair, as though in a feeble attempt to yank him upwards. But the motion was slurred, unlike before; time seemed to slow; the substance he fell through was not air, but some sort of viscous semi-solid, like honey. Akise felt a gelatinous mass ooze against his limbs as they moved, down and further down, towards a point of steadily enlarging light.

And then, their feet touched solid ground.

They were stood in a wide corridor of unidentifiable metal. Harsh strip lights glared down as alternating neon beams of different shades. The texture immediately struck Akise as something out of a cyber-futuristic movie or novel; he supposed it wouldn't be out of place on an abandoned starship. But it was such a dramatic departure from the typical décor of Sakurami Tower that it made Akise doubtful.

"Are you sure this is the corridor we're looking for?"

Ai nodded. "Yeah. I know; it's a bit disorienting, isn't it? We thought the same the first time we came here."

"Still, how odd," Akise mused. "This isn't how bugs usually work…"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Yukiteru asked, pulling his eyes away from a holographic map of a bizarre-looking solar system set into the nearest wall.

"Usually, new areas that open up due to bugs in the system follow the same texture pattern of the area that surrounds them," Ai explained. "For instance, our hideout takes on the appearance of a warehouse because it's located within the Industrial Block."

Yukiteru nodded somewhat uncertainly. "So this one's unusual, huh?"

"You could say that," Akise replied. "But bugs, by their very nature, are random. So I don't think it's anything worth worrying about."

He realised then that he was consoling himself as much as Yukiteru. _What is this trepidation I'm feeling?_ Akise stared into the vanishing point of the corridor, at and beyond the infinite danger that lay ahead. Something's _wrong, but I can't place quite what…_

Their footsteps made no echo as they pressed onward. It was as though the sound of their footfalls really were being absorbed into the endless void of space. Yukiteru, for once, did not seem as perturbed as Akise. Not that that was saying much; all four of them were tense. They couldn't afford not to be.

The corridor eventually widened into a polygonal chamber, with two gleaming, elevator-like double doors set at forty-five degree angles to the entrance. Everything, even the meticulous designs that covered the floor and ceiling, was geometric. It was, Akise reflected, like the belly of some sort of analytical machine.

Focusing instead on the immediate issue, Akise blocked out all background noise and thought. _Which door is the right one?_ He didn't suspect for a second that both might retain the same outcome. No; if there was a choice, the two had to be distinctly different. One led to Causality Cathedral; the other led elsewhere, into an abyss of complete unknowing.

He was about to ask Ai and Marco which was the correct route, but in that same instant he realised it himself. There was a tinge of definite familiarity beyond one of the doors – the left door was communicating with him, beckoning him, almost. Showing him a vision of what lay beyond; and sure enough, that vision was of Causality Cathedral.

Yukiteru seemed to agree; looking up from his phone diary, he met Akise's gaze and nodded. Akise made to move towards it, but stopped just two metres short when he realised Ai and Marco weren't following.

Confusion was etched plainly on the two Regulator's faces. They gazed questioningly at each other.

"I dunno, babe," Marco muttered. "I'm damn certain it was the right last time. It was damn obvious…"

"But this time, it's the left…" Ai shook her head. "Or at least, it feels that way…"

"Are you saying that the route has changed since you were here last?" Akise questioned.

"W-well…" Ai groped for her words, visibly stammering, "…that can't be right! If it's changed… then there's no way this can be the result of a bug…! B-but… there just can't be any other possibility…!"

Everyone, including Ai, knew that she was merely attempting to evade the truth. Akise almost sighed, wondering if he should really spell it out loud – but in seeing Yukiteru's puzzled features, realised he had to.

"Bugs," he began, "as a general rule, tend to stay as they are until some outside entity – like a Regulator, or a few maintenance Phagocytes – comes along to alter it. So, if the correct route has indeed changed…"

"But nobody could have tampered with it," Marco interjected. "It would have shown from the outside. No matter how good you are, you'd _have_ to leave some detectable trace if you were gonna mess around that much."

"So then… this 'bug' isn't a bug after all, but rather a place that was deliberately designed," Akise concluded.

Marco glared at the albino incredulously. "But who could do that?! Regulators can't create pocket-dimensions in the main system –"

"They could," Akise interrupted, "If they had the Authority of an Administrator."

Akise waited for the other three to digest the enormity of his claim. It didn't take long.

"And if that's the case here…" Ai breathed.

"Then that means…" Marco whispered.

"That this is in fact… a trap." The couple finished in unison, twin ashen masks of fear superimposed over their faces.

 _"_ _Ahahahahaha! Took you long enough to realise, didn't it?!"_

The mocking, disembodied voice reverberated around the chamber. Akise's metaphysical heart almost stopped at the sound. _No… That voice… It isn't_ her, _is it?_ But of course it was. _And to think we were lucky enough to evade her for so long…_

The ground shuddered as something beneath it clicked into place. Then, smoothly and swiftly, the circular centre of the room jutted upwards, revealing a cylindrical chamber that promptly swung open to reveal…

…none other than Uryuu Minene.

She was wearing a themed outfit, presumably meant to emulate a crew member of a starship fleet; whitish-grey, with a high collar and neon-blue trim, thick black boots, and a belt hung with a wild assortment of sci-fi weaponry.

The four of them stared at the smirking terrorist in stunned silence. Unsurprisingly, Marco was the one to eventually break through their stupor.

"Y…you?!" he bellowed, loudly enough that the very air trembled. "What the fuck… how did you… And what are you wearing, lady? Is that cosplay?"

"'Cosplay'?!" Minene glared angrily at the brawler. "What on earth are you talking about? When you're a terrorist as renowned as I am, you become well-versed in the art of disguise."

To tell the truth, Akise wasn't really at all surprised by Minene's sudden change in attire. She'd done it at least once before – soon after she had first been initiated by Deus, she had turned up to a meeting wearing a full bridal dress. But, he decided, that wasn't really the issue here.

"'Renowned', you say?" Akise pointed out. "Surely, Uryuu-san, the word you're looking for is 'infamous'?"

"I don't need a lecture in grammar from you, rogue," Minene spat harshly.

 _Rogue?_ "I'm simply just remarking on your strange choice of words." Akise smiled genially. "For instance, why would you refer to me as a rogue? Wouldn't that be a little like the pot calling the kettle black?"

At that point, Minene cackled. It was a brittle, serrated sound – truly the laugh of a person who had descended into insanity. Akise felt Yukiteru press up against him, felt the noirette's terror, felt it coursing through him, intermingling with his own.

"Oh, oh, Akise-kun! You always think your assumptions are correct. Well, _newsflash!_ Even a God-given genius like yourself can be wrong, it seems." Minene's smirk widened. "A rogue Regulator is defined as one who isn't affiliated with any particular Administrator. And you, so it happens, are the only one here who fits that category."

"Are you really expecting me to believe you managed to convince Deus to trust you again?" Ai demanded, incredulous. "Because I can't, especially not after that last stunt you pulled."

"Oh, please. You really think I'd go back to Deus?" Minene sounded equally incredulous. "Deus has nothing to offer me. The man's a fraud. He's no god; he's just a scumbag full of empty promises… and not to mention a despotic parasite." She sighed. "So, naturally, I sought out an alliance that I could properly thrive on, or at least for the time being."

"So? Spill it," Marco ordered aggressively. "Who's this third Administrator you claim to be allied with?"

"O-oh, how cute!" Minene clasped her cheeks in her hands in a mock display of "My, my! You two really do have some faith in that dear John Bacchus of yours, to immediately assume that he'd never betray you!"

Instantly, all the blood drained from Ai and Marco's faces. They attempted to speak, but no sound came out of their mouths.

Akise stepped forward to fill the gap. "So, you're saying that you were allied with John Bacchus all along?"

"Oh, no, not all along," Minene admitted. "In fact, it was only a short while ago that I met him for the first time. It was shortly after Ueshita-san's death, in fact." She shrugged. "I had been digging around for any potential leads at that point, but it was he who found _me_ rather than the other way around. He sought me out. I guess he had some specific task in mind that he trusted me to do more than anyone else."

"Why the fuck would he ever trust _you!?"_ Marco was at this point so riled that Ai had to physically restrain him to prevent him from jumping recklessly at Minene.

"Oh, I don't know," Minene remarked casually. "Perhaps it's because I'm a Subject… or at least was originally." When Ai and Marco stared at her in confusion, she elaborated. "I am not an AI, unlike you three. I possess actual, human intelligence. Perhaps Bacchus could connect with that on a more fundamental level that he could with a bunch of what are essentially humanoid robots." She cackled again.

"B-but Bacchus wouldn't –" Ai protested.

"Don't 'but Bacchus wouldn't' me," the violet-haired terrorist interrupted brusquely. "What the hell do you two know about him? Nothing! Hell, you don't even _talk_ to him. You've only spoken to him directly about once or twice. It was _Ueshita_ he was allied with – you two were only allied by association with her…" She breathed out, folding her arms. "But you know, he really was close to Ueshita. He used to even refer to her as _'Kama-chan',_ did you know that?!"

"I can't believe he told you all this," Ai seethed.

"Well then, don't believe it," Minene uttered dismissively. "The point is, Bacchus now wants to pay back Deus for Ueshita's death. But to do that, you see, he needs to get close to him. Close enough to make Deus trust him beyond a doubt. So, in order to do that, he needs to get rid of any… liabilities." She gestured pointedly at Ai and Marco.

"And just how the fuck are we liabilities!?" Marco's face genuinely looked as though it might detonate at any moment.

"Think about it." Minene leaned nonchalantly against the cylinder she had appeared out of. "You're Ueshita's own children. Doubtlessly, Bacchus thought that you two, in your dumb youth, with your emotional insecurity and your bogus codes of honour, would sooner or later try something stupid that would wreck his chances of getting back at Deus. He decided that if he tried to talk to you about it, no amount of reasoning would work." She shrugged. "It seems he knows how children work."

"I've never heard such bullshit!" Marco roared, and within milliseconds he was on top of Minene, throttling her to the ground. But the one-eyed terrorist had reflexes as swift as a snake's. She teleported the instant before Marco could pin her and slammed into him from above with the full force of her Ability. Marco's skull was crushed against the ground with a sickening crack that was only drowned out by Ai's cry of anguish.

The two purple-haired Regulators clashed, their limbs moving so quickly that even Akise could only discern an incoherent blur. As they fought, Marco staggered upright behind them. His face, beneath the rapidly healing fractures and dripping lines of blood, was absolutely livid.

Minene fell backwards with a grunt, clutching at her jaw. Seemingly, one of Ai's punches had found its mark.

Ai's hair was wild, her breathing ragged. Marco slid in beside her, lines of rippling code contorting the bones and tendons of his ruined face back into their previous positions.

"I'm sorry," Ai muttered, breathless yet sincere. She didn't take her eyes off their shared enemy. "I should have protected you, Marco."

"Say sorry later, babe," Marco grunted in response. "For now, let's just kill this bitch."

Minene's mouth twisted in another of her devious smirks, made only more maniacal by the steady stream of blood dripping down her chin. "You can't kill me, and you know it. You'd need the help of an Administrator to do that, and as I said –"

"Bullshit!" Marco snarled. "Why should we believe you? Alliance, my ass! I don't think a rogue like you even knows the meaning of the word!"

Minene huffed. "Again with the labels? I told you, I'm _not_ a rogue anymore."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Ai intoned. She met Marco's gaze, nodded, before turning back to the terrorist. "We'll kill you first, and then we'll confront John Bacchus about it directly."

Minene shrugged. "As you wish. Come at me with all you've got."

Akise immediately stepped back as Ai and Marco tensed into twin fighting stances. He pulled Yukiteru along behind him, ensuring that he could block the noirette from the furious crossfire that was about to unfold.

 _Still…_ Akise frowned. _This seems reckless, even for Uryuu. Surely she must be aware of Mikami's and Ikusaba's true prowess?_

Whether that was the case or not, Minene didn't even so much as flinch as her two foes charged simultaneously towards her. They dashed as twin bolts of supercharged lightning before disappearing into the ether mere centimetres from Minene. A feint.

Far from being surprised, Minene merely smirked and closed her eyes. It was then that Akise realised what was going on; the reason for Minene's nonchalance. He mentally cursed himself for not realising sooner; by now, it was too late to even warn them.

He could only watch as Ai and Marco continued their assault, moving fluidly, perfectly synchronised. They slashed at Minene from left and right, both directions, all directions, relentlessly. The terrorist, unable to block even a single one of their attacks, was sliced up like sushi, and eventually collapsed to the floor, her skin and clothes slick with rapidly oozing blood.

She now resembled something inhuman; a crimson, bulging mass, curled up like a deformed foetus, unmoving. Ai and Marco stood to either side, poised with their blades outstretched.

"Is that all…?" A gurgling, almost guttural voice emanated from the grotesque pile of body parts that was Uryuu Minene; her tone was hollow… disappointed, almost. A single mauve iris lit up in the broken shadows of Minene's face, and she staggered, zombie-like, to her feet. Her wounds were already healing, but they were making slow progress; it would be hours, Akise suspected, before she fully recovered.

The eye regarded the double team coolly as Minene reached into her belt to produce an all-too-familiar device. Both Regulators flinched when they realised what it was.

"I guess it's time for the final show then," Minene rasped gleefully.

"No - ! Wait –" Marco hollered, but his protests were quickly drowned out in an all-encompassing gout of flame that enveloped him from the legs upward. At the same moment, the air around Ai combusted, and simultaneously the two of them were launched skyward.

Akise ducked, holding Yukiteru close, as explosions rocked the entire room. Minene raised her bloodstained arms, enraptured by the sight before her. Within moments, Ai and Marco were reduced to ashes, and then finally to nothing. Her handiwork done, Minene brushed off her hands and sighed deeply.

"Well, now all that's left to do is to get to the Akashic Records and use that key Bacchus gave me to delete their source codes from the system." She glanced over her shoulder, meeting Akise's gaze. "But first, I'll get what I came here for."

Akise felt Yukiteru tremble against him. He gazed levelly at Minene; the look in her eye confirmed his suspicions. "Of course. You're not the type to form an alliance simply out of the goodness of your heart. You came here ultimately for the chance to capture Yukiteru, didn't you? You seem to be competing with Deus's Regulators for possession of him, after all."

Minene smirked again. "Typical Akise-kun. Always a few steps ahead of everyone else. But you just saw here that a few steps might not be far enough, mightn't it?"

Akise clutched Yukiteru close to him. "I hope you do understand that I have no intention of giving Yukiteru up to you. I'm willing to fight you if I must. But before that, I was hoping you could explain exactly what it is you want with him."

Minene sighed. "Typical Akise-kun," she repeated, "always nosing about in others' private business. It's too bad that you aren't able to take proper advantage of that phone… haven't you noticed? Maybe you haven't considered this, but perhaps it's better off in someone else's hands."

"What do you mean?" Akise countered. "I heard from Deus himself that this phone was designed specifically for use by Yukiteru."

"That's not what I meant," Minene replied, her tone taking on an edge of impatience. "Whenever he's with you, Amano-kun here is unable to properly use his Observer's Diary to its full extent. Like now, for instance." She spread her arms wide to indicate the room. "This bypass has Administrator-level encryptions that can easily override Ueshita's little protective patch. Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?"

"But…" Akise gazed at Yukiteru's pallid features. "Your diary was working earlier, wasn't it?"

"Y-yeah," Yukiteru replied, "but as soon as Uryuu-san appeared…" He turned his phone's screen to show a completely blank window.

"Well, yes. That's the beauty of it!" Minene continued. "Bacchus designed this area with that specifically in mind. Everything hinged on the idea that you wouldn't suspect a thing until you fell right into my trap."

Minene took a step forward, her single eye boring into Akise. "Don't you see now, Akise-kun? It's a double-edged sword, that phone. It _could_ be useful to you, but alas… you keep dragging it into places where it's not meant to be."

Akise narrowed his eyes. "Just what are you implying, Uryuu-san?"

"You'd be the last person I'd expect to ask that question, Akise-kun," Minene stated amusedly. "You see, Amano's phone was always _intended_ to have administrative backing. It was supposed to have been given to him by Deus, and because it wasn't, it's incomplete. I'm surprised you hadn't figured that one out already."

Minene turned to Yukiteru, who jolted as she met his eyes. "You see? I'm only trying to help you out, Amano-kun. You want to get out of here, don't you? Well, if you come along with me to John Bacchus, we might be able to do just that. He's promised me freedom in exchange for my services. Using your phone and Bacchus's Authority, we can get out of here together."

Yukiteru straightened himself up and, hesitating slightly, managed to look Minene in the eye. "Is that true?" he murmured.

Minene chuckled. "I suppose I can understand why you'd be reluctant to trust me. But try to understand, Amano-kun; that was then. This is now." She turned to Akise. "I'm not lying, either. You can tell that much, can't you?"

Akise had to admit that there was nothing in Minene's demeanour that suggested otherwise. She was right; her circumstances _had_ changed since her last run-in with Yukiteru, and she seemed better-informed and less gung-ho as a result. But whether that truly signified trustworthiness was still up for debate…

"I'll do it… as long as Akise is included as part of that deal," Yukiteru cut in with resounding conviction.

"Yukiteru…" Akise, for the first time, felt almost too choked up to speak. _Is now really that time…?_ He wished it could've been later rather than sooner.

He was about to say more, but he was abruptly cut off by Minene's cackling. "Ahahaha! What a touching notion," she remarked, grinning through her split lips. "What made you so attached to a Regulator, eh? Are you in love with him?" she chortled.

"Y-yeah. I'm in love with him." Yukiteru looked down as he said it in a vain attempt to conceal his reddening cheeks.

Minene's giggling filled the entire chamber. "Well, kid, that's going to be the death of you. Sorry to say it, but love's the sharpest double-edged sword of all. So long as you stay with this guy –" she indicated Akise "- you'll end up killed. Sure, it might feel nice to start off with. But that's what love is; it's a corrosive process. A poison." Her smirk widened. "You saw, didn't you? How I took down Mikami and Ikusaba just now. I used their signature love against them. By making them both fight me at once, I was able to make them both manoeuvre into the positions I needed them to be in. When they fight as one, they're more powerful, but they're also more predictable, too." She licked at one of the cuts on her hands.

Yukiteru said nothing, his face tensed in anger and dismay. He didn't want to believe it. He _didn't_ believe it, Akise realised.

But there was nothing Akise could say to dispute Minene's claims. All of it, regrettably, was true. Love _was_ a double-edged sword. Eventually, Yukiteru's love for him would only bring him pain. And pain was the last thing Akise wanted for the noirette.

"Uryuu-san," Akise began, hesitant, and yet with growing certainty, "promise me that no harm will come to Yukiteru. You'll make sure he makes it out alive, safe and sound, okay?"

Yukiteru, as expected, immediately whipped around to face Akise. "A-Akise! What are you _saying - !?"_

"Yukiteru." Akise grasped said noirette's shoulders. "Trust me. This is for the best." He met Minene's gaze.

The violet-haired terrorist nodded in response. "You can trust me to keep your promise. After all, I have no reason to kill him, do I?"

Akise supposed that was true. Of course, there were safer bets than Minene, but considering who was available at this current time, she was, rather ironically, the most trustworthy.

 _I should have considered this sooner. I'm just as much a threat to him as Gasai Yuno is…_

"Goodbye, Yukiteru." Akise didn't meet his gaze; he wasn't strong enough for something so bold. Without hesitation, he then pushed Yukiteru towards Minene.

 _"_ _No!"_

Yukiteru's scream rang out like a volley of arrows, piercing Akise's ersatz soul. And in that moment, time slowed.

Something flashed in Yukiteru's hand; the edge of something sharp and metallic, catching against the neon lighting. As he stumbled towards Minene's outstretched grip, the edge revolved in a wide, clumsy arc. Despite the poor aim, both of the terrorist's arms were lopped off at the elbow.

But Yukiteru didn't stop there. Minene, having staggered back in pain and shock, couldn't get away fast enough before Yukiteru sliced again, this time at her neck. A jagged chasm of muscle and sinew opened, splattering blood all over the noirette. Minene's body crumpled to the floor, shortly followed by Yukiteru's knife. Both promptly dissolved into incomprehensible strings of digits.

A silence fell between them, broken only by the wordless, ragged breaths of Yukiteru. The noirette then turned towards Akise without meeting his eyes and shuffled forward, before eventually breaking into a run and jumping on Akise with such force that the albino was knocked to the ground. Yukiteru embraced him tightly in a manner that suggested he would never be willing to let go.

"Akise…" Yukiteru's voice wobbled as he spoke. "You said you would never leave me."

"I did say that," Akise admitted stiffly.

"So why would you break your promise to me?!" the noirette demanded, fixing him with an intense stare.

The betrayal in Yukiteru's eyes sent a pang throughout the albino's whole body.

"Look, Yukiteru, I…"

 _I have to tell him the truth._

"I didn't mean to…"

 _I can't tell him the truth._

It would crush him. Right now, that was all Yukiteru wanted; to leave Deus's empire along with Akise.

So he couldn't, for Yukiteru's own sake, find out that what he wished for was impossible. Akise's mind hummed as he formulated a feasible explanation.

"I'm sorry, Yukiteru. It was a ruse, you see. Minene was liable to attack us if I didn't hand you over; if I didn't appear to agree to her proposal, she might've tried to take you by force. I couldn't risk that. So instead, I made it _seem_ that way… but all along, I was watching your back." He forced a chuckle. "But who knew that you would respond that way? I guess I don't need to worry about you so much after all, seeing as you can fight like that."

"R-really…?" Yukiteru's eyes lit up like twin sapphire stars.

Akise nodded. "Really. Don't be so hard on yourself. You're not a dead weight to me at all." He affectionately ruffled Yukiteru's hair.

 _I'm going to have to tell him at some point._

But he knew he would put it off for as long as possible.

Shaking his head, Akise turned towards the left-hand door – the one that led to Causality Cathedral. He had to focus on the now. He had to decide what action they would take next.

"Are… are Mikami-san and Ikusaba-san alright, do you think?" Yukiteru's voice wavered as he spoke. "You said that it takes more than that to kill a Regulator, but –"

"Yes, that's right. At least for now, they're still alive." As long as they could evade Minene, there was still a chance they might be able to respawn in the main system and survive. Until they met again, however, he and Yukiteru would be on their own.

They had lost their allies. Infiltrating would be easier with less people, but it would also be harder to fend off the Phagocytes.

"Yukiteru," Akise murmured, "do you want to head back, or do you want to continue on to Causality Cathedral?"

The noirette sat back, detaching his gaze from Akise as he descended into deep thought. "Well… Uryuu-san said that I need an Administrator's power to use my Observer's Diary properly, right?"

"She did, though I have no idea whether that's true or not," Akise admitted.

"Well… could we find the answer in there?" he gestured towards the exit.

"It's indeed possible. And there might be the answer to many other things… like the deciphering of that code Mur Mur sent you, for instance."

"Oh, yeah… that might be a clue," Yukiteru murmured. "Either way, we'll probably be at least a little bit closer to getting out of here, won't we?"

"Yes, I suppose." _Though that's a very optimistic way of looking at it…_

Yukiteru stood up eagerly and hauled Akise up by the hand, causing the taller boy to stumble and sway slightly.

"Whoa," Akise chuckled, leaning on Yukiteru's shoulders for balance. "I had no idea you were this strong!"

That, at least, was a truthful observation.

Yukiteru beamed and threaded his fingers into Akise's hand. "Let's go, then!"

Akise staggered as he suddenly found himself being pulled along by the noirette. "Hold on… wait just a moment…" he garbled urgently.

"Yukiteru - !"


End file.
